Soros signals Argentina's shale is biggest place to be

And while the market has caught on to the 'Soros Factor,' it hasn't yet caught on to the smaller companies that are positioned to benefit from the Vaca Muerta shale and the new Agrio find.

The Neuquen basin is also where YPF, in partnership with Chevron, is producing crude from the Vaca Muerta shale and is expecting to have nearly 300 wells drilled in the Loma Campana/Loma La Lata area.

It's great news for Chevron, but it's also great news for smaller players with big footprints on this scene who will benefit from all the supermajor drilling in the emerging Vaca Muerta and the new Agrio shale formations-as well as from the confidence boost provided by Soros.

There are only a few junior companies who have significant land holdings in Argentina's Neuquen Basin, among them, Madalena Energy Inc.(MVN.V), which will benefit from Chevron's plans to drill 300 wells just west of the junior's Coiron Amargo block.

The point is that as the supermajors drill, the smaller companies reap the benefits, positioning themselves for big rewards with big players who are eyeing their large tracts of land in this promising basin. "Given the size of the resource prize in both Vaca Muerta and Agrio, Argentina is home to one of the biggest unconventional plays in the world," said Kevin Shaw, CEO of Madalena Energy, which controls around 1 million net acres in Argentina and plans to begin shale development in the Agrio formation later this year or in early 2015.

"Some of the largest oil companies around the globe are continuing to actively drill and appraise Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale and are now starting to do work in the Agrio shale," Shaw said. For oil and gas explorers both big and small, Argentina is back--with possibly more shale than the United States, and the industry is more active than ever..

Like Warren Buffet, when George Soros makes a big move, people notice. Their decisions, which sometimes run counter to conventional wisdom, are often seen in hindsight as signals of trends that few investors are noticing.