Argentina’s YPF Sells Assets to Develop a “Dead Cow”
Argentina‘s state oil company YPF SA plans to get rid of a number of businesses and a share in the capital in order to finance work on the country‘s largest shale field Vaca Muerta (Dead Cow). The sale of half of the shares in the Refinor refinery has already started, then it is planned to sell 70% in the gas trader Metrogas SA. The second deal has been postponed for now: the company expects that the reforms of the new president of Argentina will make the gas market more liberal, thereby contributing to the growth of the trader‘s value. YPF also expects to complete the sale of old traditional oil fields.
Thus, YPF plans to receive “hundreds of millions of dollars for shale production costs“ in the second half of the year, in particular on the “Dead Cow,“ Bloomberg writes. Thus, the company seeks to increase its profits. Buyers have already been found in Brazil and Chile.
However, the state oil company will retain a number of non-shale assets, in particular 50% in A joint venture with Canadians for the production of fertilizers from natural gas Profertil SA, as well as the R&D division of Y–TEC. The latter will shift attention to shale production, “pushing“ agriculture and energy transfer issues.
According to Bloomberg, in the second quarter of 2024, 52% of all oil and gas, or 539 thousand BPD, was produced by YPF from shale deposits. The construction of a pipeline from shale deposits is also actively underway
By the way, earlier there was information about the purchase of YPF shale deposits by American ExxonMobil in Argentina. But now the YPF management does not comment on the situation.
