From New York, USA – “Long live ypf, fuck,” he shouted Horacio Marínthe president and CEO of YPF, from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) balcony after touching the bell that symbolized Friday’s contribution closure on Wall Street, the at this time convulsed and extremely volatile heart of global finances.
Marín and his management team came to this city to present the plan of the flag oil company, in which the Argentine state is a majority shareholder, before investors and bankers. A scheme that, says Marín, shields the company and its project against local and global turbulence and that will allow it in a few years to be a big player of the world of LNG, or liquefied natural gas.
YPF plans to operate 860,000 barrels (own and with its partners) this year, to almost 2.1 million in 2030, of which half will be of the company. At that time it will be a company full shale (unconventional hydrocarbons) which will also seek to stand out in downstream (refining and sale of fuel), and will be the number one exporter in the country. That says Marín’s grid.
The company confirmed the USD 5,000 million investment for this year, of which USD 3,000 will go to Vaca Muerta, and a total of USD 35.7 billion in the next 6 years. Marín got off the Nyse balcony visibly excited. He was filled with tears again minutes later, when he spoke exclusively with Infobaeand had spent a few hours before, when he publicly thanked the president Javier Mileiin it Freedom Hall of this traditional building, where the Investors day of the company.
— What do you think of the ads of the agreement with the IMF and the departure of the stocks?
– The removal of the exchange rate is a new step in the recovery and sustainable economic growth of our country. President Milei does what he says and that is key because he transmits confidence in the world that investments in Argentina are reliable and safe, that allows us to attract large companies to help us develop our projects.
— At the Nyse closing ceremony he said that YPF is unbeatable. Why do you think?
– For what we show in the Investors Day: We are on the way to do a company that will operate 2 million barrels of operations, of which 1 million will be own. We have a very clear program, that all of us who work in the company know. You go to a service station and everyone understands what the 4×4 plan is. YPF is leading the industry, and when we reach the final objective of the USD 30,000 million exports, the contribution of all YPF employees will have been very strong. We have a project that is unbeatable from every point of view.
— He touched the bell and when he went down he was very excited. What did you think at that time?
Don’t make me cry again. I broke because I remembered where I come from, from my grandmother, my old woman, my daughter, my wife. It doesn’t bother me to cry. And it does not bother me to be noticed, it is something that humanizes. I am the same as everyone, what happens is that I put very high goals and push them, but nothing more. I remember where I come, where I want to go. I got excited about that. Nothing else.
— Let’s go back to the presentation they made before investors. How can the YPF five years plan summarize?
– It is to develop in full cow. What YPF has and leave the foundations for the industry to develop. In numbers, it means that we are going to do a company that will have an EBITDA of USD 12,000 million with the LNG (it refers to the profits before taxes, interests and amortizations). The last year were already USD 4.7 billion, which is an extraordinary number. We are more than duplicating the profits and we are reconverted to be a company of Muerta Vaca, of unconventional hydrocarbons. And that makes you resilient, makes the barrel of oil come to assert just USD 45 [hoy vale unos USD 63, luego de caer más de 16% por los anuncios arancelarios de Donald Trump]we can still develop the business. If investments stop we would continue to be resilient at really ridiculous prices. We are going to do a company that will double your activity, we are putting technology, innovation and disruption. We think beyond 2030.
— Explain to me your theory of why Vaca Muerta is resilient.
– The company Rystad He made comparative with the United States and Vaca Muerta is better [que Permian, el mega yacimiento shale de Texas]. That puts us in a very good position. Due to a matter of scale difference in the country, the United States can have better logistics, but we are absolutely profitable and competitive. The importance in competitiveness is not so much in oil, which is a spot market, but in LNG. LNG is a terrible change for Argentina. YPF is going to have 25 or 30% of that business, but international companies will arrive and it will be a phenomenal change with full development. YPF will have investments from USD 7,000 million, only in the upstreamto remove hydrocarbon, not counting LNG plants or gas pipelines. I think it is very important because it generates scale and we can compete at low prices. We are resilient almost at any price. That is, YPF will have profits in any situation. And to that we came, to generate value for the company.
“You have to react quickly, but never panic. You can react quickly when it is clear where you want to go”
— Does that mean that if there is any turbulence, such as the one we had in recent days, or some other, internal or external, the YPF plan will be maintained?
– Of course, it was all thought. We think very well. We position ourselves to be resilient to crises, and so we are like exxonmobil, such as large companies, super the super majors. You have to react quickly, but never panic. You can react quickly when it is clear where you want to go.
— Before investors he was also excited when he thanked Milei.
– More than 35 years ago than I work. I’m going to say a bad word, but I broke my ortho studying. I am a chemical engineer, I have a Master in the US in which I was distinguished student and also another postgraduate degree. I don’t know how to open Netflix: What I know is to work, study and train. Milei gave me a chance without knowing me, for my career. Three times before I was one step away from reaching YPF and politics went down. You have to be grateful and not recognize the opportunity that the president would be to have no values.
— What lacks Vaca Muerta?
– The first stage was to take out the infrastructure bottlenecks and solve them, that is already aimed. Now comes a training stage for operators. We are quite advanced, but we need all private companies to the Muerta Vaca Institute. YPF does so for the industry and for people to understand the risks. Security is a very important asset. There is no cubic meter that justifies a curite and that is achieved with knowledge. Another topic is the teams [de perforación y fractura]. We are going to double the amount of equipment in three or four years, there will be more contracts, more investments, more training. You have to do it among the entire industry, with the provincial states and the guilds. We are in a virtuous circle, as never before. It depends on us and you have to think big. That is a great change for Argentina, a change in the way of thinking of all actors. You have to stop thinking that the foolish state has to invest in everything. The companies that develop these resources have to invest in all phases of development and put the long pants to achieve it.
— He talked about the YPF five -year plan, but if we look a little further, in the long term and think of a YPF within a decade, how can I imagine that company?
– You are going to get things that I did not want to declare, but I say them because they are part of the thought plan. I imagine YPF with cow in the beak (production) in a decade, having extraordinary profitability. Growing with YPF Luz E YPF Nuclear. Light for renewables, but I also imagine YPF entering the Argentine nuclear energy plan after 2030. At least my knowledge of physics and chemistry, I think that nuclear energy will be fundamental in the next decade. E YPF does not have to be outside.
— ¿What time of these 16 months of management would you choose to describe the work done so far?
– I am very proud to make disruptive technological changes. Many times people doubt and those changes are reflected is great.
— For example?
— Los Real Time Intelligence Centers. People who worked in the wells every day now there is a part of their work that can be done remotely from centers of technological excellence. That is equal to better quality of life. That improvement gives me pride, because I see them more motivated and cheerful. I am very demanding, it is my function. I don’t have to lower my arms. When the results are achieved with passion it is spectacular. That motivates me to work every day, to arrive every day at the company at 6:45 and go at any time, even if it’s big and sleep little. That is my greatest motivation at work.
“YPF is my wimbledon, it’s a dream to work on this company,” Marín told Infobae in June last year. The sports analogy is not accidental: Marín was a professional tennis player until he was 19 and stopped playing to study and “because he knew he was never going to be number one.” In that period he came to play in the traditional Grand Slam tournament in London.
In this city, the Executive also talked about what will happen to the price of fuels. In summary, He said they will continue as so far: to the rhythm of international prices and also inflation.
“We have a procedure to calculate the price of the fuels that eliminates the peaks. I do not detail it because it is complicated with the competition. If the price of the barrel low and is passenger, it will be absorbed by the mathematical method we design. If it is not passenger, the gasoline will lower. But it will also rise when the international price of oil rises. At the time, we lower 5%, but I handle the coffers of YPF. That month there was a devaluation of 2% and some taxes rose. Beyond that, he believes that there were distortions, such as that the price in CABA was 15% less than that of the killing, for example, and that now the market is almost normalized.
With respect to some large companies that left the country, such as Exxonmobile, he believes that they are short -term and opportunity movements of each company. “Some leave, but first level companies that want to enter Argentina and be our partners, who operate YPF. They are seeing how we change and are willing to enter. We are not accustomed, but in a normal country there are companies and others entered”He said and preferred not to give names of the interested parties.
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