LNG

Argentina’s President-elect Javier Milei has offered the post of President and Chief Executive of state-owned energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) to Horacio Marín, an industry veteran and shale drilling expert who is a petroleum engineering graduate of the University of Texas.

Argentina said it was prepared to follow through with a pledge to remove investment uncertainties for foreign energy companies, especially in the construction of liquefaction natural gas export plants as the South American nation moves to develop its huge shale-gas reserves.

International companies including US majors see huge potential for Argentina from feed-gas brought to the coast from the huge Vaca Muerta shale basin containing one of the world's largest unconventional gas reserve.

Economy Minister Sergio Massa said in a speech to business leaders that the Government in Buenos Aires was preparing an LNG investment bill to send to Congress.

The Minister was accompanied at the event by the Secretary of Industry and Productive Development José de Mendiguren and the Secretary of Energy Flavia Royon,

Also present was Pablo González, President of Argentine state energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF), which has various LNG development and shale gas and oil projects planned and had previously overseen the nation’s small-scale trial in LNG exports.

“If one looks at the reports of the most prestigious analysts in the energy sector, they envisage that in the next few years we are not only going to stop being importers of our energy, we are going to be a big player with our product,” declared Minister Massa

Protections

Massa said he hoped Congress would discuss the LNG Bill in the coming sessions. He stated that the Bill on investments in LNG plants was necessary to help the nation monetize its huge reserves and become a net energy exporter as import costs rise.

The Minister admitted that the consequences of the war in Ukraine had been having a big impact on Argentina’s energy import costs for all fuels and fertilizers.

“This final result of the year on the impact of the war shows us a negative balance of between US$3.70billion according to the IMF and US$5.20Bln, according to Argentina,” said Massa.

He said that Argentina must honour its commercial commitments just as the counter-parties must honour theirs.

Argentina has previously had the “Tango FLNG” production vessel at the Bahai Blanca port in Argentina to briefly be an LNG exporter.

The “FLNG Tango” vessel formally started its operations in Argentina in mid-2019 and a 10-year charter term began in September 2019 with Belgian shipping company Exmar.

The winter season then started in the Southern Hemisphere and liquefaction activities were stopped by YPF in May 2020.

Exmar first announced a YPF “force majeure” for the vessel on June 25, 2020, amid a dispute over various issues and the vessel departed.

“We need a great national agreement which in the next 30 years would bring core values ​​such as fiscal balance, competitiveness, accumulation of reserves and economic development with inclusion,” stated Massa.

The minister highlighted various possibilities whereby citizens and businesses had to advance with new measures that have “a full impact on the energy field and the knowledge economy” in Argentina.

Argentine state energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF), which has various LNG development and shale gas and oil projects, gave an overview in its latest earnings on the partial recovery from the pandemic of the South American energy market.

Excelerate Energy, the US pioneer of floating liquefied natural gas import terminals, said the FSRU “Exemplar” has returned to the Argentine port of Bahia Blanca to support the South American nation’s peak energy demand in the Southern Hemisphere winter.

“The ‘Exemplar’ has begun operations in Bahia Blanca, a port city located 400 miles south of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires,” said Excelerate.

The FSRU has storage capacity of 150,900 cubic metres and deliver regasified LNG for the 2021 winter season in Argentina, providing reliability and stability in the challenging conditions of the South Atlantic.

The vessel has been chartered for use by Integración Energética Sociedad Anónima (IEASA), previously known as Enarsa (Energía Argentina S.A.), a state-owned company and the national oil and gas company, and Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) S.A. to deliver an energy solution

“We are excited to return to Bahia Blanca and continue our partnership with IEASA and YPF to deliver an energy solution that is flexible, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly during a critical period of peak demand,” said Daniel Bustos, Excelerate’s Chief Commercial Officer.

“We are confident the ‘Exemplar’ can perform again with our local Argentine crew to support the country’s energy transition and post-Covid economic recovery this winter,” added Bustos.

The return of the FSRU comes after Excelerate recently won an international, competitive tender for seasonal regasification service in Bahia Blanca.

Excelerate developed the Bahia Blanca GasPort, South America’s first LNG import terminal in 2008 and has also operated GNL Escobar, an LNG import terminal along the Paraná River, since 2011.

The Excelerate company has started FSRU-led import ventures in the US, South America, Asia and the Middle East and has its headquarters in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas.

It is part of a privately held US energy group founded by American businessman George Kaiser, who is also the majority shareholder of the publicly-traded Bank of Oklahoma.