LatAmOil: YPF outlines plan for $6-7bn midstream investment campaign

Argentina’s national oil company (NOC) YPF is set to invest $6-7bn in midstream projects to boost crude oil exports from the Vaca Muerta shale play, CEO Pablo Iuliano has confirmed. The funds will be used to build pipelines and other transportation infrastructure jointly with YPF’s partners, Iuliano said at an industry conference in Neuquén.

“We need to rapidly monetise our oil resources,” he declared. “We have a beautiful problem, which we are resolving,” he said, referring to bottlenecks in transportation capacity.

According to Iuliano, “de-bottlenecking” transportation capacity will allow YPF to ramp up oil exports relatively quickly. Other companies are also investing funds in their transportation infrastructure, he noted.

He also stated that Vaca Muerta fields were expected to help Argentina to boost crude production to 1.2mn barrels per day in the next few years. This volume far outweighs the February 2023 figure of 627,000 bpd, which already exceeds average demand of 550,000 bpd.