President Alberto Fernández announced this Thursday a alliance between YPF and the Malaysian state oil company, Petronas, for unconventional gas industrializationwhich will involve a investment of 40,000 million dollars. The agreement of understanding was signed in a ceremony that took place at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) and was attended by the head of YPF, Pablo González, the CEO of the Malaysian company, the ambassador of that country in Argentina, the governor from the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, and businessmen from the sector.
According to YPF sources, the alliance aims to increase in gas production and transport capacity and the installation of a Licuado Natural Gas (LNG) plant in the Buenos Aires town of White Baywhich will allow to generate exports for 50,000 million dollars a year.
Although initially the investment will be 10,000 million dollars, throughout the project a total of 40,000 million will be disbursed. The investment will be shared equally by the two oil companies, but YPF will be the majority shareholder, with 51%sources confirmed.
The project includes the construction of a gas pipeline with characteristics similar to Nestor Kirchner, who will link the Neuquén site of Vaca Muerta with the Buenos Aires town of Saliqueló.
As a result, it is expected to export the equivalent of 460 regasification ships per year in the next decade. “What we are going to announce in the afternoon is the possibility of turning Argentina into a player in the global gas market, taking into account the country’s potential in terms of energy resources,” he said. González this morning during a talk on energy at the Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (Malba).
A project to improve gas processing
PetronasGonzález highlighted about the other actor in the alliance, “It is one of the most important companies in the world in terms of hydrocarbons.is the third producer of LNG globally, it is active in 50 countries and in 17 with LNG and there is a partnership with YPF since 2014″.
“We have been working on this project for two years. There are almost 10,000 million dollars in a first stage that involves extraction, transportation and production. It must be a State policy,” González added, while recalling that “if we are here, with these developments, it is because in 2012 the YPF Recovery Law was passed and the framework for the development of hydrocarbon investments”.
Axel Kicilloffor its part, explained this Thursday that the agreement between YPF and the Malaysian oil company Petronas aims to “Improve Vaca Muerta gas processing capacity”.
This afternoon “we are going to be in the Federal Capital with the Petronas company on the issue of improving the Vaca Muerta gas processing capacity, something for which we had been fighting a lot“said the provincial president to Radio The compass from Bahia Blanca. “We gave a very big fight for the interests of the province, but particularly for Bahía Blanca because I think it is the port of the future of Argentina, everything that has to do with hydrocarbons has a fundamental role,” said Kicillof.
“There is a discussion about how to export the excess gas. Until some time ago, it was not exported merchandise, unlike barrels of oil, it was normally by gas pipeline, but some time ago, on the one hand, it also began to be converted into liquid and regasified again. It’s requires large investments for that process, they are very expensive plants that Argentina did not have, it had the reverse. But now that surplus has to be transported, That is why the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline is being built and it will have to be reinforced with another to Bahía Blanca.”, he added.
A balance since the recovery of YPF
In that sense, the Governor commented that “we are preparing ourselves for the result of what was the recovery of YPF in 2012, when he was minister. Vaca Muerta was absolutely stopped because Repsol had not invested anything in oil exploitation. We managed to make the investment the highest in history and we launched it, first with an agreement with Chevrón and also with Petronas, which is this Malaysian company, and now an important announcement is being made.”
“We are 10 years away from YPF’s recovery and these are investments that take a long time to mature. Every time you talk about infrastructure you have to think of it that way, in decades. In any case, Vaca Muerta is already the main unconventional producer in Argentina, and growing every year,” added Kicillof, who concluded with a criticism of the previous administration: “That is why the government of Mauricio Macri was painful, because only the private ones were thought of”.