Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 50 2021

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

YPF exec says Argentina is

studying LNG export plans

ARGENTINA’S national oil company (NOC)
YPF is reportedly looking into proposals for
establishing LNG export capacity in the expec-
tation that production levels will rise at fields
in the Vaca Muerta shale formation and new
pipelines will be built to move production to the
Atlantic coast.
Alejandro Lew, the CFO of YPF, said last
week that the state-owned company had begun
carrying out preliminary studies so that it could
take the steps needed to turn the country into a
net exporter of natural gas. “We are doing the
technical studies to be prepared,” he said during
a speech at the Americas Society and Council of
the Americas energy conference on December
10. YPF declared force majeure on its FLNG vessel in June 2020 (Image: Exmar)
Lew stressed that these studies were still
in the early stages, since Buenos Aires did not Hemispheres, he added. Gas demand is lowest
have many options for securing the many bil- in Argentina when it is highest in large mar-
lions of dollars in financing that will be neces- kets such as North America and Europe, he
sary to build networks of new LNG terminals explained. Exporting surplus gas to the North-
and export-oriented pipelines. YPF, as a state- ern Hemisphere is sure to become easier by the
owned company, is not in a position to access winter of 2023, when a large new pipeline capa-
world capital markets at reasonable rates given ble of handling 44mn cubic metres per day of gas
that Argentina has been mired in a financial cri- is due to be completed, he added.
sis for the last four years, he noted. YPF made its first attempt to export LNG in
He also indicated, though, that officials in the summer of 2019/2020, when it hired a float-
Buenos Aires were willing to be patient. “With ing LNG (FLNG) vessel from the US-based firm
the current macroeconomic environment in Excelerate Energy for the purpose of exporting
Argentina, any multi-billion-dollar and mul- cargoes to Asia. The scheme was suspended in
ti-year project such as an LNG terminal should 2020, when gas production, prices and demand
probably take a few years to come. But the all plummeted as a consequence of the coronavi-
opportunity is there,” he commented. rus (COVID-19) pandemic. Prices and demand
One of the opportunities YPF wants have since recovered, though, and output levels
to explore is rooted in the seasonal differ- are also on the way up in many production prov-
ences between the Northern and Southern inces, including Vaca Muerta. ™

ECUADOR
Threat of erosion leads Petroecuador to

shut down pipelines, declare force majeure

ECUADOR’S national oil company (NOC) a statement dated December 12. It said it had
Petroecuador has shut down the country’s main declared force majeure on all contracts related
crude and fuel pipelines, explaining that it could to the operations of its own 360,000 barrel per
not operate these systems safely until it had dealt day (bpd) Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline Sys-
with the threat of soil erosion. tem (SOTE) and the smaller Shushufindi-Quito
Petroecuador announced the suspension in petroleum product pipeline.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 16•December•2021