Argentina's state-owned YPF saw output of unconventional crude surge by 36pc to 126,000 b/d in the third quarter of the year compared to a year earlier.
YPF's third quarter statement put total production at 559,000 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d) with crude at 256,000 b/d, up by 8pc, and natural gas at 40.3mn m³/d, or 253,000 boe/d, an increase of 7pc, and 49,000 boe/d of natural gas liquids, up by 4pc.
Unconventional crude accounted for 49pc of overall output. It was 39pc of total production a year earlier.
YPF is the major player in Vaca Muerta, Argentina's unconventional formation that holds an estimated 16bn bl of crude and 308 trillion cf of gas, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The formation is at the heart of YPF's plans for Argentina to produce 1mn bl of crude and export up to 30mn metric tonnes/yr of LNG by the end of the decade.
YPF is now Argentina's largest crude exporter, dispatching an average of 40,000 b/d in the third quarter, nearly all of this going by pipeline to neighboring Chile, according to Federico Barroetavena, chief financial officer.
He said the company invested $1.35bn in the third quarter, with more than 70pc on upstream. It drilled 50 wells in the third quarter.
YPF is moving ahead with its southern Vaca Muerta oil pipeline as it looks for partners for the full project. It has completed 50pc of the first 130km (81.4mi) segment. The second 440km, as well as storage tanks and a monobuoy platform, will require $2.5bn. The company anticipates construction to start in the first quarter of 2025. The initial capacity will be 180,000 b/d in 2026, increasing to 500,000 b/d in 2027 and, eventually, to 700,000 b/d.
YPF is also the largest shareholder, with 37pc, in the Oldelval pipeline from Vaca Muerta to the coast. It is undergoing an expansion to 530,000 b/d in 2025.
The state-owned energy company, Enarsa, completed in October the reversal of the country's northern gas pipeline to move Vaca Muerta gas to the north of the country.
It will move more than 15mn m³/d of gas to northern Argentina. It previously moved gas from northern gas fields, now depleted, and Bolivia, to the capital, Buenos Aires.
