The Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, and the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, presided this Friday in Rome the rubric of a memorandum between the Argentine oil company YPF and the Italian ENI to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Vaca Muerta, the second largest world reserve of unconventional gas.
At the ceremony, the delegate administrator of ENI, Claudio Descalzi, and the executive director of YPF, Horacio Marín, exchanged the agreement signed before the gaze of Meloni and Milei, very smiling in the act in the Chigi Palace, the headquarters of the presidency of the Italian government, before the bilateral meeting between both leaders, according to images released by the office of the president.
It was also joking Decalzi and Marín, who melted in turn into a hug at the end of an event that showed the good state of diplomatic and economic ties between Italy and Argentina.
YPF, controlled by the Argentine State, is a key actor for the Milei government, who wants the country to become one of the main world exporters of LNG in the next decade.
Eni, of which the Italian State has a 30%, is considered strategic for Italy, which imports 95% of the natural gas it consumes, so its ties with YPF are seen as an impulse in the ‘economic diplomacy’ with Buenos Aires, reinforced by the ideological tune between Meloni and Milei.
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In mid -April, YPF and ENI signed a first memorandum of understanding to study the development of a phase of the so -called Argentine LNG project.
The document signed this Friday is a Project Development Agreement, a step prior to the signing of the final investment decision, which could be completed before the end of this year, according to YPF Executive Director, Horacio Marín.
The Argentine LNG project plans to bring natural gas from Vaca Muerta (southwest of Argentina) to a port on the Atlantic in the Southern Province of Río Negro and there to turn it into LNG into liquefaction ships, for later export.
The plan involves several companies involved in various phases.
In the case of ENI, the Italian company would intervene with two LNG ships of 6 million tons per year (MTPA) each.
According to Marín, exports could begin in 2027-2028, with an annual sales volume between 12,000 and 15,000 million dollars per year “up to 2050, at least.”
The signing of the agreement is one of the central events of the visit of the Argentine leader to Italy, while tomorrow he will be received at the Vatican audience by Pope Leo XIV.
After that, it will continue with a tour that includes visits to Spain, France and Israel.
With EFE information
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