Page 17 - LatAmOil Week 42

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

The Dock Sud refinery is located in Avellaneda first ethanol billionaire.
in the eastern part of Buenos Aires Province in “Today, after two years, the time has come
northern Argentina. to project ourselves forward, continue growing
Raizen Argentina has also announced plans and investing in the country,” he added.
to continue expanding its retail network, which Raizen was born in 2011 out of a joint ven-
currently consists of 735 Shell-branded service ture between the Anglo-Dutch oil major Royal
stations. Dutch Shell and the Brazilian sugar company
“When I decided that my company should Cosan. Its Argentinian subsidiary, split 50:50
expand in Latin America, I did not doubt that between Shell and Cosan, was launched two
the first step should be in Argentina and that is years ago via the acquisition of the downstream
why we bought Shell’s fuel and lubricants busi- business of Shell Argentina. Under a branding
ness in October 2018,” said Rubens Ometto Sil- deal, it uses the Shell name at its retail outlets in
veira Mello, chairman of Raizen and the world’s Argentina. ™

YPF will pay Exmar $150mn

to exit Tango FLNG charter

ARGENTINA’S national oil company (NOC) where Tango FLNG can no longer operate
YPF has reportedly agreed to pay Belgium’s profitably.
Exmar $150mn in compensation for the early Initially, Exmar criticised this move, saying
termination of a charter agreement for the it “[considered] the notice to be unlawful.” Sub-
Tango floating LNG (FLNG) vessel. sequently, though, it entered into negotiations
In a statement, Exmar reported that the set- with YPF.
tlement with YPF had taken effect on October The Tango FLNG facility, previously known
19. It noted that the NOC had already made its as Caribbean FLNG, was built in 2017 for
first payment of $22mn and would pay off the a project in Colombia that later failed. YPF
balance of $128mn in 18 monthly instalments. then signed a 10-year contract with Exmar in
As a result, YPF has exited from the 10-year November 2018, saying it would use the vessel
charter, which is estimated to be worth around to liquefy and export natural gas from its fields
$500mn. As a result, it will no longer have to in the Vaca Muerta shale formation. At the time,
pay the daily rate of $140,000 for the use of the it said it expected Tango FLNG to turn out up
FLNG unit, which forms the main part of the to eight LNG cargoes per year over the 10-year
Escobar LNG terminal near Buenos Aires. term of the deal.
Exmar has been serving as a service contrac- The floating liquefaction plant, which can
tor to Excelerate Energy, the Belgian company produce 500,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG,
that operates the terminal. It has not received has loaded four commercial cargoes since
any payments under the charter agreement November 2019. Operations began slowing
since YPF declared force majeure in April. The down in March, when YPF began taking emer-
NOC explained its decision by pointing to the gency measures, including the suspension of
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which non-critical activities, in response to the pan-
has reduced global energy demand to the point demic. ™

Tango FLNG can produce 500,000 tpy of LNG (Photo: Exmar)

Week 42 22•October•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P17