Rincón de los Sauces ( en, Place of the willows) is a first category municipality and the capital of

Pehuenches Department Pehuenches is a department located in the northeast of Neuquén Province, Argentina. Geography The department limits at north with Mendoza province, at northeast with La Pampa Province and at east with Rio Negro Province, Añelo Department at sou ...

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also meets La Pampa Province a ...

, Argentina.

History

The area was first populated by settlers around the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century until a flood of the

Barrancas River The Barrancas River is a river in western Argentina. Traveling eastward from the Andes range, it separates the Argentine provinces of Mendoza and Neuquén. Joining the Río Grande, it merges into the Colorado, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. S ...

caused the destruction of several buildings and a consequent population decline. After the flood, the main economic activity in the zone was based on cattle farming.

YPF YPF S.A. (, formerly ; English: "Fiscal Oilfields") is a vertically integrated, majority state-owned Argentine energy company, engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, and the transportation, refining, and marketing of gas and petr ...

, then the state oil concern, discovered

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

under ''Puesto Hernández'' in 1965, and subsequently, the population grew rapidly. Officially chartered on December 20, 1970, the town is named for the willow trees (''sauce'') that abound in the region. Its name, roughly translated, means Willows' Corner.

Economy

The town has been declared the National Energy Capital due to its having 50% of the proven reserves of oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in Argentina. The town is served by a regional airport.Rincóon De Los Sauces Airport (RDS) Details - Argentina
/ref> Here lived among others Juan Pablo Gambeta, famous athlete in the region.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rincon de Los Sauces Populated places in Neuquén Province Populated places established in 1970