Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF SA expects shale oil and gas production to grow 35% in 2018, as costs in the Vaca Muerta shale play continue to fall, Chief Financial Officer Daniel Gonzalez said. Still, declining production in mature fields means overall hydrocarbon output will fall 2 to 3% in 2018 after a 5.3% reduction in 2017, Chairman Miguel Gutierrez said.
Argentina has left behind its populist experiment, and there is no other country with greater potential, Argentine president Mauricio Macri told the World Economic Forum in Davos during a speech to the forum of world political and business leaders.
Argentina plans to auction offshore oil and gas exploration rights next year, in the hope of developing fields off its Atlantic coast like those in neighboring Brazil, the energy minister said on Thursday.
Norway's Statoil, STO and YPF announced an agreement to explore hydrocarbons in the Vaca Muerta shale. Under the terms of the agreement, Statoil will enter the Bajo del Toro license block with a 50% interest. YPF will retain a 50% share and will remain the operator.
The chief executive officer of Argentina’s state-owned oil company YPF has resigned and a six-member executive committee will run the company. The company did not name a replacement for CEO Ricardo Darre, who had held the job since July of last year. Darre, an engineer, had previously worked for French oil company Total in the United States.
BP unit and subsidiaries of France’s Total and Germany’s Wintershall have signed an investment agreement with Argentina’s state-run oil company YPF to jointly invest US$1.15 billion in the Vaca Muerta shale formation in Argentina.
Oil and gas production in Argentina has fallen to 1981 levels, the lowest in 25 years, despite a $14 million government subsidy for the first five months of this year. From last year to May 2017, the country has produced 2,311,736 m3 of oil and just under 3.8 billion m3 of gas, which shows a drop of 6% and 1.8% respectively.
Argentina's oil corporation YPF plans to match United States costs in developing non conventional energy, by the end of 2018. This refers to the very rich shale deposits of Vaca Muerta, with a target of 10 dollars per barrel and for this purpose it has started a program of experimental drillings.
ExxonMobil is planning to speed up investment plans for shale gas drilling in Argentina’s prized Vaca Muerta formation in the Neuquen province. Exxon will start drilling Vaca Muerta in May, by drilling horizontal wells with laterals of 2,500-3,000 meters, Neuquen province governor Omar Gutierrez said this week.
Argentina's Tecpetrol, part of the Techint Group, said on Thursday it would invest US$2.3 billion in the Vaca Muerta shale fields through 2019, the largest announcement in the formation in years. Tecpetrol said in a statement the investment was made possibly due to measures from President Mauricio Macri's government, including a deal with labor unions earlier this year and a definition of price supports this month.