In this paper we describe the process of agricultural frontier expansion in the Uco Valley in the semi-arid province of Mendoza, Argentina, in order to question two strong paradigms of water management that are actively used in local eco-technocratic discourses; the so-called Blue Revolution and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Drawing on personal fieldwork and analysis of secondary sources (triangulating interview materials, business reports, websites, cadastral information and censuses) we investigate how theses processes of corporate control grabbing over peripheral rural spaces of this oasis and its water resources − in particular the adoption of precision agriculture and pressurized irrigation systems − contribute to forge locally a model of (de)integrated, autonomous and privatised water management