Horacio Marín, president of YPF, bets that “the Vaca Muerta South oil pipeline it will be the first RIGI project of the country’s energy.” The investment of US$ 2.5 billion will be done in partnership with an American groupthe executive said in radio statements.
“This project is going to end the current bottleneck in the transportation of oil from Vaca Muerta,” said the former Tecpetrol employee in an interview on Radio La Red.
“We are going to do it with the whole industry and we are in talks with a very important company in the midstream (transport) of the United States.” The company in question would be Energy Transfer, According to the agency, Bloomberg.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer, operates more than 200,000 kilometers of pipelines for energy products and several export terminals in the United States, and has offices abroad, in China and Panama.
YPF also is negotiating with other oil companies that need additional transportation capacity to unlock production, and could bring in additional partners once the consortium is up and running. The main operators of Vaca Muerta are Pan American Energy, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Tecpetrol, Pluspetrol, Shell and Vista.
The pipeline is key to achieving the goal of exporting half a million barrels of shale oil per day by the end of the decade. Currently, Vaca Muerta exports barely exceed 100,000 barrels per day.
Shipments from that area are now limited by pipeline bottlenecks, and Some of the production still has to leave the fields by truck.
YPF announced the start of the works in May for the construction of the first 128 kilometers from the fields (in Añelo) to the town of Allen, in the province of Río Negro. The largest project that Energy Transfer could be associated with would consist of lay 437 kilometers of pipeline from Allen to the Atlantic coastwhere a port will be built in Punta Colorada, a former iron shipping point.
The Government is working these days on the regulation of the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) approved in the Bases Law. This package of benefits seeks to attract international investors with tax exemptions and stability.
The RIGI, for example, establishes the right of investors to freely use export proceedseven keeping them abroad without liquidation.