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🇦🇷 Argentina /Energy & Infrastructure

The Pérez brothers’ multimillion-dollar businesses are a surprise in the oil world

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Engineers Carlos and Sergio Pérez built a group of companies in Neuquén over 25 years, starting with oil services and expanding into pharmacies, farms, gas stations and media.
  • Their core company, OPS, delivers turnkey projects for the natural gas and oil industries and has completed 1,200 kilometers of pipelines and 780 projects.
  • OPS has 4,000 employees and counts Shell, Pampa Energía, YPF, Pluspetrol, Oldelval, Chevron and Vista among its clients, while major projects support expanded oil production from Vaca Muerta.

Carlos and Sergio Pérez built a business empire in Neuquén while maintaining such a low profile that, as the article puts it, they grew up in full view without anyone seeing them.

The brothers are the sons of a farm worker from Vista Alegre, a small town 30 kilometers from Neuquén city. Both attended technical school before studying engineering at the University of Comahue. Carlos chose civil engineering, while Sergio studied chemical engineering.

Over 25 years, their businesses expanded from oil services and turnkey compressor-plant design to pharmacies, farms, gas stations and a newspaper in their home province. People familiar with their companies describe the brothers as rigorous and highly precise with customers and suppliers. The work environment has been described as “tense and sometimes suffocating,” according to a source the article calls unimpeachable.

Clarín said it tried to contact the brothers for the article, but they declined. Sergio Pérez replied, “We are part of the Río Negro newspaper and only publish through that outlet.”

tense and sometimes suffocating

· Unidentified sourceDescribing the working environment at the brothers’ companies.

Their main business is OPS, or Oilfield Production Services, which Carlos, known as Charly in the oil industry, runs. Founded in 2001, the company builds surface facilities, pipelines and pressure vessels for the oil and gas industries. It began with civil works in Río Negro and Neuquén, including several projects for YPF, and gained prominence after winning a contract to manufacture compressor plants for the former Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, now called Perito Moreno.

OPS says it has completed 1,200 kilometers of pipelines and 780 projects. It has 4,000 employees and eight operating bases. Its clients include Shell, Pampa Energía, YPF, Pluspetrol, Oldelval, Chevron and Vista.

In 2023, Oldelval awarded OPS a contract to lay 258 kilometers of the new pipeline linking Neuquén with Puerto Rosales in Punta Alta. The Duplicar Plus project is intended to expand oil production from Vaca Muerta, which the article says is constrained by limited pipeline capacity. In 2024, OPS manufactured two two-phase separators for YPF, equipment designed to separate oil and gas when they arrive mixed from a well.

We are part of the Río Negro newspaper and only publish through that outlet.

· Sergio PérezExplaining why he declined Clarín’s request for an interview.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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