Chevron/YPF sign pilot accord to drill 100 wells in Vaca Muerta shale deposits
US Chevron and Argentina’s nationalized YPF signed a partnership to on Wednesday to invest 1 billion dollars to develop the shale-oil reserves of Vaca Muerta in the hydrocarbons rich Patagonian province of Neuquén.
The companies will work on the Loma La Lata Norte and Campana areas within the Vaca Muerta formation, Miguel Galuccio, YPF CEO said in a video-conference from Houston with Ali Moshiri, Chevron’s head of Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
The details of a permanent deal will be negotiated over the next four months. The companies said Wednesday's letter of intent envisions an initial joint venture to drill 100 non-conventional oil wells at a cost of 1 billion dollars.
The agreement is the first YPF has reached with a foreign oil company to invest in Argentina since the government nationalized 51% of the company by seizing shares from Repsol SA in April. Repsol claims to have discovered the rich shale deposits.
Vaca Muerta holds at least 23 billion barrels of oil equivalent, according to a report by independent auditor Ryder Scott released in February by YPF. Argentina holds the world’s third-largest shale gas reserves, behind the US and China, according to US Energy Administration data.
But Galuccio and Ali Moshiri said the agreement signed on Wednesday only covered a pilot phase.
“The question is going to be how big the investment is going to be beyond the pilot,” Moshiri told reporters. “Our goal is to start as soon as possible. What we need is to push our teams to put a definitive agreement together as soon as possible.”
CEO Galuccio called the preliminary accord “a very important day for YPF.”
YPF, which was nationalized in May, has said that to boost output it needs to invest more than 30 billion dollars in the next five years, 4.5 billion of which is to come from strategic partners.
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Chevron have NOT signed a binding agreement for the future, just a piddling USD 1 Bn for 100 wells.
No fracking technology training, in fact no fracking of the wells as far as we are told, just the drilling.
How much, if any, oil is to be won from these 100 little wells?
Bit of a non-event in reality but no doubt the usual suspects will spin it out of all proportion.
clip2net.com/s/2AKoT
Great news for you, again, involves theft, coercion or subterfuge.
Premature ejaculation (PE) is a condition in which a man ejaculates earlier than he or his partner would like him to. Premature ejaculation is also known as rapid ejaculation, rapid climax, premature climax, or early ejaculation.
You have my sympathies.
They were faked, you know how I know, she was not eating her crisps (chips)any quicker. She prefers it on her knees, the oilmen get somewhere to prize the tops off their beer bottles and strike the match for post coital cigarette.
More oil in Patagonia (and cheap to extract) is more problems for OFF SHORE EXPOLIATION you have in Malvinas-
Try whit more WIND FARMS, you will need it, believe me-
Argentina need investors and Chevron want to invest- BP goes home a few months ago- No more british capital , CHINESE.
And americans can´t stopped that, and don´t want to leave this juicy bussiness , thats why Chevron become partner-
Mess them about and Chevron will be gone before you can say YPF!
I'd bet my pension on it!!!!!
From WSJ:
Chevron and YPF executives declined to comment on how much oil and gas the initial wells might produce, saying their main focus is keeping development costs low. Although YPF would have to import some technology from the U.S., the area where the pilot program will be located already has most of the necessary drilling and processing infrastructure, Mr. Galuccio said.
YPF hopes to learn from Chevron's experience drilling for oil and gas in the Marcellus Shale formation in the northeast U.S. and the Eagle Ford shale formation in Texas, Mr. Galuccio added.
“What you're dealing with in the U.S. does not exactly match what we're seeing here,” Mr. Galuccio said.
In the interview, the executive added that the Vaca Muerta shale was twice as thick as the Eagle Ford formation, and with higher pressure. It could turn out that applying horizontal drilling techniques in the same way they are used in the U.S. may not be the answer, he said.
Bummer
Surely the brilliant RG minds can come up with a solution! They're so good at innovation!
bahahahahaaa
Have haliburton furked up another well-head yet?
It'll become YPF when they get the fields fully functional, because current estimates are $20Billion to develop 2 fields according to an article in the FT recently, and YPF can't afford that. So it will be the old 'beg (for help), borrow (the equipment and know how to get started) and steal (the lot) routine'.
If CFK wants YPF to drill her 100 wells, she better start aplying pressure to the respective judge or she is going to be sucking “dusters” as Think would say!!!!!!
#20 sure, of course REpsol will not win in a USA court like argentina has not had success in a US Court either......we only rule for Americans......right?
And who knows if the results are positive, and they are still the only big oil company willing to invest there, it would give them a lot of leverage on any Argentinian administration.
A lot more than Ecuador.
Maybe there is method in their madness.
I wonder what the Ecuadorians will think about it.
@ 14 Rosarino
You forgot to mention Petrobras “leaves” as well.
Check out 18 Captain Poppy and the WSJ section. Seems your gloating was a little “cart-before-the-horse” if you have any idea what that good old British saying means.
TWICE the thickness of any previous strata AND higher pressure: DOUBLE WHAMMY!
AND this from the poor sap in charge of YPF: “It could turn out that applying horizontal drilling techniques in the same way they are used in the U.S. may not be the answer, he said.”
So to recap:
1) twice the strata thickness;
2) much higher interior pressures;
3) NO TECHNIQUE IN THE WORLD AVAILABLE TO EXTRACT THE OIL AT THIS TIME!
4) Falklands (there are STILL no Malvinas you Pratts) deep water drilling and winning is still possible WITH EXISTING TECHNIQUES AND PROVEN TECHNOLOGY.
I love it when AG gob-shites make a complete fool of themselves because they do not have a clue WTF they are on about.
Chevron will not spend more than USD 1 Bn, that is for sure without further concessions from YPF (and who would TRUST them) so is it 100 wells or ONE well on the way to understanding the likely solution to SAFELY extracting this new type of fracking that will be required before a litre of oil gets to the surface.
Ha, ha, ha to the power of googol squared: how about the size of that number?
You can bet that that pilot agreement equates to releasing their garnished funds after X wells drilled or I can't imagine Chevron sticking around and being fiduciarily negligent
Publically traded companies are in the business to make money, not help and give away assets to countries like argentina. We shall have a good idea of the potential outcome of this adventure by March for certain.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Read No 2 by me and try to understand the implications, but I doubt you are capable of getting them.
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