YPF chief announces state firm will sell off Metrogas shares

Horacio Marín, the president of Argentina's state energy firm YPF, has announced that the company will sell its shares of gas distributor Metrogas.

He made the remarks during a presentation before the Consejo Interamericano de Comercio y Producción (Inter-American Council for Trade and Production, CICYP).

“We’re putting Metrogas up for sale,” Marín told business leaders.

“Since the country risk [rating] is dropping enough, if anyone wants to buy it, here we are. Our business is not distributing gas to residences, but fracturing, drilling and making petrol," he added.

The goal is for the proceeds of a sale to be invested into drilling at the Vaca Muerta shale formation.

Marín further pointed out that the state firm is in the final steps of selling its YPF Brasil, YPF Chile and Refinor operations.

“Since I’m here to defend shareholders’ profits, I cannot sell Metrogas with a 1,500-point country risk. Now [with 900 points] I can because I’m defending YPF’s equity and the State’s shares in YPF.

"The time has come and if we get any logical offers, we’ll sell it, take the money and inject it into Vaca Muerta," said the YPF chief.

Argentina's state energy firm is the majority shareholder in Metrogas, with a 70-percent share via Gas Argentina SA (GASA), a company controlled by YPF.

The stakeholding provides it with control of the largest natural gas distribution company in the country, supplying over two million customers, mainly in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.

The relationship between both firms started when YPF increased its share in Metrogas and displaced private partners, consolidating its position in the domestic gas market.

“The goal is by 2031 to make Argentina a net exporter in the amount of US$32 billion. Energy can contribute the same way as the Pampas,” said Marín.

“The entire energy industry has to multiply current energy production by 2.2 [times] and that is achieved exclusively with Vaca Muerta. If offshore happens, we’ll take it to 4 or 5 [times].”

“The four-year goal is to quadruple the value of the company’s shareholdings [value per share] by the end of Javier Milei’s first term,” he added.

According to Marín, “the most profitable thing in Argentina is to develop Vaca Muerta oil, there’s nothing else. And this is our focus for the next four years."

– TIMES/PERFIL