Buenos Aires — The natural gas transportation company TGS SA (TGS) is leaving aside his plans to build a small liquefaction plant to transport Argentina’s growing unconventional gas production, while the state energy company YPF SA (YPF) seeks industry-wide support for its large-scale project.
“We have put the LNG project on ‘stand by’ because there is a new approach on the part of YPF,” TGS Chief Financial Officer Alejandro Basso said in a Q1 2024 financial results call on Tuesday.
TGS had been exploring designs for its own plant, a Texas-based company, Excelerate Energy, and had even secured installation space in a port on Argentina’s Atlantic coast.
Now, according to Basso, The gas company is studying a project larger than YPF, Argentina’s largest oil and gas producer, is developing with Petronas, Malaysia. Excelerate Energy declined to comment.
Argentina currently imports LNG, but it has the ambitious goal of becoming a net exporter of its shale gas.
YPF, which has not yet started construction of the planned terminal, It aims to start exporting LNG in 2027 and increase volumes in the following years. The company Pampa Energía SA, the main shareholder of TGS, has recently declared that it wishes to participate in the YPF-Petronas project.
