Argentine Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) is preparing to send the export shipment of oil for the first time in two years. This became possible thanks to targeted government subsidies, the introduction of which was announced in March.
In particular, YPF has sold 200 thousand barrels of crude oil Escalante Chinese company PetroChina Co. as part of the joint with Pan American Energy LLC cargo of 1 million barrels, reports Bloomberg.
Sending the tanker will be held may 10-20 with the Argentine oil terminal Caleta Cordova. The next load YPF plans to export in June, then until the end of the year will send some more tankers.
Last month, the Argentine government announced that it would provide a subsidy of 7.50 dollars per barrel of exported oil, while the price of Brent will not exceed 47,50 $ per barrel. This was done to support domestic oil producers.
The fact that the refinery of the country prefer to buy imported crude oil, as it costs them cheaper than the Argentine. “In light of sluggish demand on local raw materials the grant will allow local oil companies to compete on an international level, and thereby will support the domestic mining industry”, — said Mara Roberts, an analyst at new York BMI Research.
And YPF, which is, among other things, the largest oil refiner in the country, there was a surplus of oil, because of the company’s refinery in La Plata because of the accident turned out to be corrupted installation for coking. The construction of the new plant is in full swing, but it will be ready only at the end of 2016.
Meanwhile, Mara Roberts points to the fact that price bracket, which will operate the grant, may soon be achieved. Mark Brent remained to rise by about $ 1.5 and to stabilize at this level. “It is therefore unlikely that Argentine producers will export significant amounts of oil for any length of time,” says the analyst.
