Brazil's Matrix Energy Group and Argentina's TotalEnergies confirmed on Wednesday an agreement with the Bolivian state-owned company to export Argentine natural gas to Brazil using Bolivia's transportation infrastructure.

Brazil's Grupo Matrix Energía and Argentina's TotalEnergies on Wednesday confirmed an agreement with Bolivia's state-owned company YPFB to transport natural gas from Argentina's massive Vaca Muerta shale formation to Brazilian territory.

The contract with Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to allow Argentine natural gas exports to Brazil using Bolivian transport infrastructure was signed on November 22, representatives of the two companies confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday.

YPFB had issued a statement on Tuesday saying the deal marked a "crucial step" to allow gas supplies from Argentina to reach Brazilian consumers and to strengthen "the process of regional energy integration."

On the Argentine side, TotalEnergies, a unit of French oil company TotalEnergies, obtained two permits to export natural gas to Brazil from both the Austral Basin and the Neuquén Basin, through interruptible contracts signed with the gas trading company of Grupo Matrix Energía of Brazil.

International transport will be carried out by YPFB from Bolivia to the border with Brazil.

Argentina is seeking to increase hydrocarbon exports from the Vaca Muerta formation, the world's second largest unconventional gas reserve and fourth largest oil reserve, which covers an area similar to that of Belgium in the Andean province of Neuquén.