YPF’s 2022 balance sheet entered the podium of the best in its history, with profits and record production

New York, USA – Special Envoy. YPF, the oil company whose majority shareholding is in the hands of the Argentine state, presented its 2022 balance sheet with record figures and historic growth in hydrocarbon production, driven by the results of Vaca Muerta.

“In 2022, YPF’s adjusted EBITDA reached nearly $5 billion, 27% higher than the previous year, setting itself up as the third highest in the company’s history. Additionally, it posted a record net profit of over $2,200 million or 290,264 million pesos,” the company said in a statement.

Another relevant data is the growth of the company’s reserves. In other words, how much oil and gas he has underground and can show that he can extract and sell it too. “The investments, the results obtained and the efficiency achieved during the year 2022, have enabled YPF to improve its reserves, which have reached nearly 1,200 million barrels of oil equivalent, the highest figure since 2015. and 4% higher than the previous year. The reserve replacement rate was 124%,” they detailed.

Tomorrow, Friday, in freezing New York City, where the temperature won’t rise above 10 degrees, YPF will celebrate three decades of listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with an event on Wall Street and with the company’s senior executives, led by its president, Pablo Gonzalezand its CEO, Paul Juliano, who will ring the closing bell for day operations.

The Minister of Economy is also invited to the event Sergio Massa, but in the end it will not be a game, according to what official sources have assured this media. However, the Tigrense should participate in the ceremony electronically. Massa, who is currently closing the peso debt swap with the banks, could go to Expoagro tomorrow.

As YPF reported to the exchange, last year it had total hydrocarbon production that “showed the strongest organic growth in the last 25 years.” The company recorded an increase of 7% compared to the previous year, reaching 503 thousand barrels equivalent per day. “This growth has been sustained throughout the year, the last quarter ended with a 7% increase in oil production compared to the same period in 2021”, he underlined.

Vaca Muerta is the workhorse of the company: the unconventional activity continues to grow and currently represents more than 40% of the company’s consolidated production.

The production of crude oil and unconventional gas recorded a very significant annual growth compared to 2021, of 45% and 47% respectively. This growth is driven by the operational improvements made by the company in the development of its fields in Vaca Muerta, where in 2022 efficiency records were recorded in well drilling and fracturing times and the highest rating in number of new horizontal well drillings. “, has it been detailed.

In addition, YPF is carrying out an investment plan of some $4,200 million, which it says is 60% higher than the previous year and is the biggest corporate investment in the country. In particular, in the fourth quarter, the company invested more than $1.4 billion, which is 25% more than in the third quarter.

Amid rising prices, domestic fuel sales for the year were 11% higher than a year earlier, setting an annual supply record for gasoline and diesel.

“Financially, free cash flow was positive for the third consecutive year, accumulating more than $750 million for the year, helping the company reduce net debt from an all-time low. since 2015 and closed the year with a very healthy net debt ratio of 1.2x to adjusted EBITDA,” the oil company said.

“We saw last year a liquidation of global oil assets in the middle of the war, until October. YPF suffered from this and also paid for the fall in international markets. There, the stock was worth less than $3, and now it’s at $11.What happened?This sell-off was strong in all markets, but then started a rally very strong, in particular due to the appetite and the mood of the markets, and this without the price of oil rebounding. With a barrel at 100 USD, how much could YPF be worth? Our opinion is positive,” he said. Gustave NeffaSearch for traders.

Yesterday at CERAWeek, the most important oil event in the world, which takes place every year in Houston, USA, Iuliano spoke about the LNG gas promotion law, which is one of the flags of YPF and Economía would send to Congress in a few days. “We see this law as a very good first step to create conditions in the future for other businesses,” Iuliano said. “It is absolutely necessary,” he added.

The executive also pointed out that they expect to bid this year for the construction of the second part of the Néstor Kirchner gas pipeline, and that the government is in advanced talks to find a bank to finance the project.

As the oil company celebrates on Wall Street, it is expected that just a few blocks away, the judge for the Southern District of Manhattan, Loretta Preskaissue a definition on the judgment on the expropriation of the oil company, in 2012, when Cristina Kirchner she was president. There is no set date for Preska to rule on the case: he could have done so more than 250 days ago and still hasn’t.

The minority shareholders at the time, who later resold the right to claim to the English study Burford, claim that there was no equal treatment between the partners. According to a calculation made by the plaintiffs, using YPF status and estimating different scenarios of interest throughout the trial, the lawsuit could have a cost — if the country, the company, or both obtain a judgment against her — of between $8.5 trillion and up to $20 trillion.

But there’s another request involving the company that might be in the news right now. It’s a mega lawsuit, the Maxus case, which at one point was estimated to generate payouts to the company for a total reckoning of $14,000 million (almost double the market capitalization of the company on Wall Street).

The case began years ago, when Chemicals, a subsidiary of the American company Maxus, was accused of polluting New York’s Passaic River and Newark Bay with dioxin, the infamous “agent orange” used during the Vietnam War. Jersey, in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1986, Maxus sold Chemicals to a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, on the assumption of compensating the latter for any environmental liabilities Chemicals may have caused. In 1995 YPF purchased Maxus and in 2005 the State of New Jersey sued Maxus, Occidental, Repsol and YPF for alleged contamination.

In 2011, a New Jersey court ruled that Occidental and Maxus must repair environmental damage. Occidental has legally transferred all liability to Maxus as well as YPF and Repsol. Last year there was a Favorable ruling by the US courts at a preliminary stage of the case and it is estimated that there could be another at this time. Everything seems to indicate that the oil company will not be condemned in this case which is under investigation before a court in the American state of Delaware. However, we have to wait for judgment.

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