Stream-Flo Argentina Sales Manager to head group established between Embassy of Canada to Argentina and Argentine-Canada Chamber of Commerce
As Carolina Canessa looks back on her multi-decade career in Argentina’s energy industry, she’s proud of how far she’s come.
“When I started, it was very hard to find a woman in the energy sector, very hard, almost impossible,” explained Canessa. “And if you did find one, they were in finance, they were not in the operational or the sales side, you would not find a woman in the field, any time.”
But in the field is where Canessa has been for the better part of two decades.
Participating in both the upstream and downstream sectors, starting with GE and then FMC before joining Stream-Flo in 2019, where she now holds the title of Argentina Sales Manager, Canessa has had a front row view to the roller coaster that has been Argentina’s energy industry.
“Argentina is like Pandora’s Box,” she says. “But if you execute correctly and you have the courage, you can have a great, great, great business.”
The thing that took the lid off that box, was the country getting into the shale business, explains Canessa.
“In 2010, everything changed,” she said. “The business changed completely because now we were getting into frac, we didn’t know that we were the third country with the highest reserves.”
Carolina and two of our Argentine service techs pose for a photo together during a field visit in 2024.
Growing in lockstep
Fast forward 15 years and Argentina is experiencing an unconventional energy production boom, fueled primarily by the Vaca Muerta formation.
In Sept. 2024, oil production averaged 738,000 barrels per day in the country, a 15 per cent increase from the year before. They also produced an average of five billion cubic feet per day of natural gas over the first nine months of last year.
For Canessa and our Argentina team, their growth has followed a similar trajectory to that of the country’s energy fortunes.
“We started on a yard with a garage and now we basically have 1,700 square metres,” said Canessa about the two bases we have operating in the country.
Which makes the latest good news for Stream-Flo Argentina — the appointment of Canessa to lead the Energy Working Group established jointly by the Embassy of Canada to Argentina and Argentine-Canada Chamber of Commerce (CCAC) — all the more sweet.
“I was very honoured and proud,” said Canessa about her reaction to the appointment.
An inside track
Having been heavily involved with the CCAC over the past few years, Canessa says Stream-Flo and our Argentinian group have benefitted greatly from the political and industry work the organization does.
“We have been involved in special sessions with ministers, the government itself,” detailed Canessa. “These sessions provide firsthand information on what the next steps are for the energy sector.”
Describing itself as an exchange space that provides partners with information and analysis on energy, sector development, and the current state of the Argentine energy market, the CCAC also says it serves as a conduit for building relationships with government authorities and institutions.
The CCAC recently sent out a communication announcing Carolina as the new leader of its Energy Working Group.
Raising our profile
Given the Energy Working Group that Canessa will be leading is a joint effort between the Embassy of Canada to Argentina and CCAC, its focus will pertain to business development and advocacy on behalf of Canadian businesses.
Businesses such as Stream-Flo, which Canessa says now has a much higher profile in the country’s energy industry thanks to political efforts such as the one she is about to lead.
“This gives us like the first page of the newspaper, you’re on the headlines,” said Canessa. “Our name now, is known.”
As she gets ready to step into her new role leading the Energy Working Group, Canessa can’t help but look back at the very first steps she took in the Argentine energy industry decades ago, and where they’ve now led to.
“I’m really proud of all the steps I made,” she said. “I think I went the correct path.”