YPF Oil Extends Operating Agreement with Sinopec to 2027

 

Argentina's state oil company YPF agreed Friday to extend its operation until 2027 in partnership with a local unit of China's Sinopec oil in an area of ​​a province in the center-west of the country, which represent an investment of $ 300 million, the company said in a statement.

The new agreement between the two firms, whose contract expired working together in late 2016, provides for a change in the participation of society, with 70 percent by YPF and 30 percent for Sinopec Argentina versus ratio prior 60-40.

It is the exploration and development in the productive area La Ventana, located in the province of Mendoza Argentina and has an area of ​​480 square kilometers. The area currently produces about 6,000 barrels a day.

"Both companies seek to boost new projects including the completion of 3D seismic, drilling of exploratory and development wells and the construction and refurbishment of treatment plants and injection of more than 300 million dollars," YPF said in a note released Friday.

Sinopec Argentina Exploration and Production Inc. is a subsidiary company of Chinese state company formally known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, which is the largest oil refinery in Asia.

YPF is focused mainly on the development of unconventional oil in the Patagonian Vaca Muerta formation, an area that could house one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world and for whose development requires 250,000 million dollars, according to private estimates.

(Reporting by Maximiliano Rizzi, editing by Tim Pearce)