In a talk with the university community, Horacio Marín reminisced about the challenges of working as a young professional at Tecpetrol in the early days of a field that is now thirty years old.

With the aim of inspiring young students and graduates from Engineering and Geosciences degrees as well as the public in general, Horacio Marín, Tecpetrol's General Director of Exploration and Production, recalled his first steps in the industry and told the story of how they came up with the plan to win the contract for the field thirty years ago.

"El Tordillo is very close to my heart, as it was the first disruptive project we carried out as a team at that scale in the company. It was a learning opportunity where we could acquire knowledge and skills to be applied throughout the rest of our operations," he explained. Many of Tecpetrol’s managers and directors took their first professional steps at El Tordillo, where today, thanks to this mature field, young professionals are trained and fully immersed in the world of oil.

Marín also described the processes they had to go through to get it up and running: “We carried out the first large-scale reservoir characterization study and built the infrastructure, which was quite a challenge at the time. The work was of such magnitude, that even the companies with the best software for subsoil were at their limit, and this meant that improvements were constantly being developed and introduced so that we could press forward. It was a very challenging project. At the time, we had to upgrade the plants to increase production." 

Marín also mentioned the investments that had to be made, and how reaching daily production levels of 25,000 barrels was a feat that exceeded all expectations. "It was one of the first fields in Argentina to be able to actually run off the energy from the selfsame gas it was producing."

Proud to be developing a disruptive industrial model for the industry, he highlighted how everything is linked to the digital transformation that the company is going through.

He also invited those present to join Tecpetrol and be a part of the energy world, emphasizing the benefits offered by the Tecpetrol University Induction Camp field school that continues to train the company’s young professionals as they take their first steps in the industry.

The talk aroused great interest in the audience, as seen in the large number of questions that Marín took the time to answer, expanding on subjects such as professional challenges and a passion for work, as well as technical queries about the field and the energy transition process in the country as a whole.

The talk was held on Wednesday, July 21, and can be watched online.