Argentine oil company YPF reached a preliminary agreement with Texas-based Excelerate Energy to hire a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker for shipping cargoes to global export markets.
As per agreement, YPF will export LNG produced from the TANGO FLNG unit, located in Bahía Blanca.
Both parties will be executing the final agreement in the coming days, with the objective of starting operations the first week of September.
“We continue progressing in our ambition to add value to Argentine natural gas and to export surpluses during those months of low local consumption, to fully extract the potential as producer and exporter of Argentine natural gas,” said Marcos Browne, Executive Vice President of Gas and Energy of YPF.
Gabriela Aguilar, General Manager of Excelerate in Argentina, added, “It is a milestone for us to partner with YPF in this activity by contributing all of our industry know-how in the transportation of Argentine natural gas to the world.”
The natural gas, produced mainly from Vaca Muerta, will be processed by the TANGO FLNG unit at the “Mega” port in Bahía Blanca, and from there, it will be transported by the LNG carrier EXCALIBUR, which has a storage capacity of 138,000 m3. The loading of YPF’s product to the LNG carrier will be carried out through an operation that will last approximately 45 days.
The ship provided by Excelerate has proven experience in the main international LNG terminals, and as part of this agreement, will be in the service to YPF until May 2020. It will be one of two ships that YPF will utilize to transport Argentine LNG to the global market.
YPF commissioned its first cargo in May, achieving a historic milestone, becoming the first Argentine company to export LNG in its history.