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Argentina to Grant Tax Benefits to Attract $25 Billion to Vaca Muerta Oil Project

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Argentina will include the LLL Oil project, located in the country's Vaca Muerta shale area, in its RIGI incentive program, offering tax benefits and guarantees to attract $25 billion in investment, Horacio Marin, CEO of state oil company YPF said on Linkedin on Friday.

Marin said the project was the largest ever included under RIGI and the country's largest-ever export-focused oil project.

The YPF-owned project will generate more than $100 billion in export revenue over its lifetime, Marin said. Export revenue is estimated at $6 billion per year from 2032 from 240,000 barrels of daily output drawn from 1,152 wells.

"For years we said that Vaca Muerta was going to change the story of Argentine energy. Today we're entering this phase," Marin said.

"What lies ahead in the next two years is unprecedented. We will achieve it with passion and with our people who go the extra mile every day to turn huge challenges into concrete results," he said.

"We are building a company and an industry of world class."

A Bloomberg article on the development said that the company would likely need to attract significant capital from banks and other companies most likely outside the country.

It noted that the country has achieved a jump in oil output in recent years after this was stymied by years of regulatory shifts. However, it said that major international oil companies have given the country a wide berth of late.

TotalEnergies (TTE), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Equinor (EQNR) have all divested since President Javier Milei took office more than two years ago, Bloomberg noted.

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