MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

YPF and Pluspetrol swap upstream stakes to deepen Vaca Muerta push and feed Argentina LNG plan

Pluspetrol will become a shareholder in Vaca Muerta Inversiones (VMI)—a YPF-controlled vehicle with exposure to the La Escalonada and Rincón de Ceniza blocks

Argentina’s state-run oil company YPF and local producer Pluspetrol have agreed to a portfolio swap aimed at reshaping their positions in the Vaca Muerta shale play and strengthening supply for YPF’s flagship liquefied natural gas (LNG) export initiative.

Under the deal, Pluspetrol will become a shareholder in Vaca Muerta Inversiones (VMI)—a YPF-controlled vehicle with exposure to the La Escalonada and Rincón de Ceniza blocks—while YPF will take over Pluspetrol’s interests in Meseta Buena Esperanza, Aguada Villanueva and Las Tacanas, areas tied by Argentine energy press to the future LNG export chain.

Local coverage said YPF is positioning those three blocks as “strategic” for Argentina LNG, which the company has framed as a cornerstone for future growth and a source of hard-currency export revenues.

The swap lands as Argentina’s shale sector continues to scale up output and infrastructure, with Vaca Muerta widely described as one of the world’s largest unconventional resources. Reuters, citing industry executives, has highlighted the basin’s high-quality rock and its importance to attracting sustained investment in Argentina’s energy outlook.

Argentina LNG is central to that thesis. Reuters has reported that YPF has been building partnerships for the project—an export venture it has pitched in the tens of billions of dollars—seeking to ship LNG sourced from Vaca Muerta, initially using floating facilities before potentially expanding to onshore infrastructure.

For Pluspetrol, the transaction fits a broader expansion strategy in Neuquén. The company significantly increased its Vaca Muerta footprint after acquiring ExxonMobil’s Argentine assets, including a stake in the La Calera development, one of the play’s key gas and condensate areas, according to EconoJournal.

Analysts in Buenos Aires and Neuquén have framed YPF’s ongoing portfolio moves as part of a shift away from mature conventional assets and toward capital-intensive shale and export-linked projects—an approach that has become politically salient amid domestic debate over investment incentives, fiscal revenues and the pace at which energy exports can ease Argentina’s external constraints.