YPF has announced the launch of a key tender for the development of a multi-billion-dollar project in partnership with Malaysian company Petronas to produce and export liquefied natural gas (LNG).
"The LNG export project has reached a new milestone marking progress in its execution. A competitive process has been launched for the award of the engineering of the floating liquefaction units," YPF said in a statement.
In September 2022, YPF and Petronas signed an agreement to invest $10 billion in a first stage to build an LNG liquefaction plant in Argentina, extracting gas from the Vaca Muerta unconventional hydrocarbon formation in the southwest of the country.
The plan to produce LNG includes the construction of pipelines and other infrastructure, industrialization, marketing, and international logistics.
Due to its scale, YPF authorities have recently stated their intention to add more partners to this project.
According to YPF, the LNG project will enable Argentina to annually export around $15 billion worth of gas starting from 2032.
YPF highlighted in its statement that the LNG project will allow Argentina to "make a qualitative leap in generating foreign exchange, with a total planned production capacity of 25 million tons of gas per year (MTPA), to be carried out in stages."
The development of LNG is one of the pillars of YPF's four-year plan recently launched by the company, with a strong focus on the development of Vaca Muerta, the world's second-largest unconventional gas reserve and the fourth-largest of this type of oil.
Argentina's largest hydrocarbon producer recently announced it will invest $5 billion this year, of which $3 billion will be allocated to its operations in Vaca Muerta.
