Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Santa Monica, California...
There’s an old joke in Argentina that goes something like…
The world is made up of four types of countries: developed countries and developing countries, plus Japan, where nobody can figure out how they did so much with so little… and Argentina, where nobody can figure out how they did so little with so much!
It’s the kind of self-deprecating humor los Porteños have come to master, as much out of wit as necessity. Having watched their beloved nation – with its super-abundance of natural resources – go from being one of the wealthiest countries on earth, to one blighted by man-made disasters political and economic in nature, they have been obliged to develop a tough skin.
And yet, as we’ve been documenting in these Notes, the Argentines are increasingly meeting causes for cautious optimism regarding their future. On the energy front, for example, Javier Milei’s radical free market policies have invited a slew of investment in that critical industry, such that total production is up between 35-40% during his administration’s first two years.
Dead Cow Energy
Among its generous natural resource endowment, Argentina enjoys one of the largest oil fields in the world, the legendary Vaca Muerta. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, that super field alone boasts ~16.2 billion barrels of technically recoverable shale oil.
Industry data shows the country was producing around ~620,000–650,000 barrels/day (bpd) of crude oil in 2023… a figure which grew to 738,000 bpd by September of 2024… then to ~859,000–861,000 bpd in the last quarter of 2025, the highest production ever recorded in Argentina.
Industry estimates see Argentina passing the 1M bpd mark later this year, growing to 1.5M by 2027. That would put it league with mid-tier producers, like Kazakhstan, Qatar and even, eventually, Mexico.
We can only imagine what the Japanese, who must import ~90% of their energy needs, must think when they see such vast, largely untapped wealth… especially as Iran chokes off the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to sink any ship that passes the vital bottleneck, through which nine tenths of Japan’s imported oil flowed… that is, until a few days ago...
It takes a lot of energy to power the kind of scenes you see in the short clip above, which we took at the famous Shibuya Crossing in the world’s largest metropolis (pop. 37 million).
What happens, we wonder, when that energy stops flowing, when the tankers stop floating and when the lights go out in Tokyo? We’ll wait and see…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
As always, a special thanks to our paying Notes members, who kindly support our work with their dues. (Paying for a good or service voluntarily… without the compulsion of The State. Imagine that!)
If you’re not already a member, but would like to join our small but growing community, please consider doing so today, right here…
We’re en route from SoCal to the Lone State State right now. We’ll write again from Space City next week…
Wherever you’re traveling this weekend, we hope the energy is flowing your way.
As always, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
