Argentina oil firm YPF sees output boost in 2025, focus on Vaca Muerta

Argentina’s state oil firm YPF (YPFDm.BA), opens new tab expects to increase shale oil production by 30% to 40% next year, the company’s CEO Horacio Marin said on Friday.
Marin, on a call to discuss financial results, said YPF will focus its capital investments on its main shale assets, specifically within the massive Vaca Muerta formation.

Vaca Muerta is the world’s second-largest shale gas reserve and fourth-largest shale oil reserve. YPF is leading activity there in hopes of turning the country into a major energy exporter.

“We expect to increase unconventional production from 30 to 40 percent, our incremental production will be in that range, that’s why we can achieve our average of 160,000 barrels (per day) in the first quarter,” Marin said, adding that the estimates could be conservative.

YPF reported that unconventional oil production rose by 36% to 126,000 barrels per day in the third quarter, compared to the same period in 2023, and was up 11% from the second quarter.

Increased activity in unconventional oil offset the drop in production of conventional oil and led YPF to reach a total average of 256,000 barrels per day.

YPF’s natural gas production grew by 4% compared to the second quarter and 7.3% versus the year-ago quarter, mainly due to completion of the first stage of a gas pipeline that links Vaca Muerta with Buenos Aires.

The company reported a profit of $1.485 billion in the third quarter, boosted by increases in output and prices of oil and natural gas. That was far above analysts’ estimates of $312 million, according to LSEG data.

YPF continues to seek agreements with major oil companies for the construction of a liquefied natural gas plant in Rio Negro that will allow it to export to Europe and Asia.
The company will have a neutral cash flow in 2025 and will become positive in 2026, Marin said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Eliana Raszewski and Alexander Villegas; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Bill Berkrot)