US Ambassador Peter Lamelas said on Tuesday that US agencies will bring US$20 billion in investment and financing to Argentina by the end of 2027, a date he tied to the presidential election that year.

Lamelas spoke in Neuquén, the province at the center of the Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas field, at a summit of the Argentina-Texas Chamber of Commerce held alongside the Argentina Oil & Gas Patagonia trade fair. The money would come through the US export-import bank (EXIM), the development finance corporation (DFC), the State Department and other agencies, he said, for “real investments and financing for critical projects.” He gave no disbursement schedule. He separately said the DFC is working on five projects worth nearly US$10 billion, without saying whether they are part of the total.

Asked about the date, he said: “We set that 2027 number because that is the election. We are supporting this government, and that money will be ready through 2027, and we will see what happens after.” On aid beyond 2027, he said the US is “ready to keep pushing, financing from the United States beyond 2027, if Argentina keeps moving forward and never backward.”

Separately, he said Washington is backing the government of President Milei and the Argentine people “if they are on the right course: the course toward the right, not toward the left.”

The US$20 billion is nearly three times the package of up to US$7 billion that the two governments presented in September. Of that package, US$6 billion is for Argentina LNG, the liquefied natural gas export project led by YPF with Italy’s Eni and the UAE’s XRG. EXIM’s offer for it is indicative and non-binding, and needs approval from the bank’s board. “And there will be much more, Horacio,” Lamelas told YPF chief Horacio Marín, who has said the project’s final investment decision is set for November 26.

Lamelas also warned against Chinese technology in energy projects, saying China’s intelligence law obliges companies to hand over sensitive data without judicial oversight. “Energy security is national security,” he said.

The ambassador said on X that a US Commerce Department trade mission will arrive in December to add new suppliers for the Vaca Muerta industry.