October 19, 2026 · Indumor
In 2024, while Argentina debated how much gas Vaca Muerta could produce, a project few people saw was finishing in the middle of Córdoba province: the reversal of the Northern Gas Pipeline. A new stretch between La Carlota and Tío Pujio, a loop toward Ferreyra and the adaptation of several compressor stations so that gas, which for decades flowed south from Bolivia, began flowing north from Neuquén. One of those stations is named after our industrial district: Ferreyra. Vaca Muerta gas literally runs around the corner from our plant.
The essentials: Argentina is reorganizing its pipeline network to carry Vaca Muerta gas across the country and to the world. The Perito Moreno pipeline, starting at Tratayén, is being expanded by 14 million cubic meters a day — from 21 to 35 — with new compressor stations, by April 2027, with RIGI approval. A dedicated pipeline of about 472 kilometers and 36 inches will carry gas from Tratayén to the Río Negro coast to feed LNG exports. And the Northern reversal made it possible to replace gas that used to come from Bolivia. Each of these works is pipe, compressor stations, metering stations and a lot of steel around them.
The trunk line, large-diameter and coated against corrosion, is field-welded, inspected and buried. Along the route there are block valves to isolate sections, cathodic protection to keep buried pipe from corroding, traps to launch and receive the pigs that clean and inspect the inside, and metering and regulating stations where gas is delivered to distributors or industry. All of it carries structures, supports, platforms and enclosures.
Wherever gas changes hands — from a transporter to a distributor, from a trunk line to an industry or a city — there is a metering and regulating station. Gas gets filtered, measured to custody-transfer accuracy and reduced to the pressure the user needs. These are compact but dense installations: filters, heaters, regulators, meters, valves and piping on skids, with platforms, canopies and fencing. Many are built complete in the shop and travel as a ready-to-connect module.
Before reaching a trunk line, gas travels another network: gathering. In Vaca Muerta, each pad sends its production through lines to field treatment and compression plants, where water and liquids are removed and the gas is compressed for delivery to the trunk system. With hundreds of new wells a year, that network keeps growing, and every new stretch adds traps, valves, supports and small stations.
Gas loses pressure as it travels, and every so many kilometers a compressor station restores it. Compressors and turbines come from specialized suppliers, but around them lies a world of steel fabrication: scrubbers and filters on bases, air coolers on elevated structures, pipe racks, kilometers of high-pressure piping prefabricated as spools, platforms to operate and maintain, stairs, buildings and enclosures. In a compressor station, pipe support is not an accessory: poorly supported pipe vibrates, fatigues and eventually fails where nobody is looking. Designing and fabricating supports, clamps and guides is part of the station’s safety.
High-pressure gas does not forgive. Piping is fabricated with qualified welding procedures, radiographed or ultrasonically tested, hydrotested and documented joint by joint. Materials arrive with mill certificates and stay identified throughout fabrication. That is why shop prefabrication wins: welding happens in position, in better conditions, with testing on hand, leaving the minimum joints for the field.
A pipeline is inspected throughout its life. Instrumented tools travel inside the pipe detecting wall loss, dents or defects; when something shows up, it gets repaired with reinforcement sleeves, sections are replaced or valves changed. Compressor stations have scheduled maintenance shutdowns, with component swaps and support adjustments. It is work that never ends, and it sustains fabrication demand long after construction.
On top of the Perito Moreno expansion and the LNG pipeline, other projects are under evaluation, such as TGN’s proposed Manuel Belgrano pipeline. The trend is clear: more gas, carried farther, with more compressor and metering stations along the way. For the supply chain, that means years of work in pipe supports, piping, structures and maintenance. And for Córdoba, now in the middle of the reversed network, a concrete chance to be close to the work.
The advice, selling nothing: if you are going to work in gas, start with the paperwork. Qualified procedures, certified welders, traceability and documented testing are not red tape; they are your ticket in. The technical basis is in shop-prefabricated piping, the basin feeding it all in Vaca Muerta, and our offer in industrial piping, pipe supports and structures, built at Indumor.
Piping, supports and structures with qualified procedures and traceability.
© Indumor 2010–2026 — Industrial steel fabrication, Córdoba, Argentina
