State-run energy company YPF will sign an agreement with Italian energy firm ENI for the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Italy, company president Horacio Marín said Wednesday.
Italy, like other European countries, has sought new sources of energy around the world following the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The agreement will be signed on Friday during an official visit to Rome by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who is due to meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
According to Marín, the deal is a preliminary export agreement ahead of a final commitment expected by the end of the year. He confirmed the news during an energy conference hosted by the Ámbito media outlet.
The contract will cover the export of 50 million cubic metres of LNG, which will be transported using “two ships, each with a capacity of six million tonnes – the largest vessels of their kind currently under construction in the world,” Marín said.
In April, YPF and ENI had already signed a memorandum of understanding to explore cooperation on the Argentina LNG project.
The project aims to develop the vast shale gas reserves of Vaca Muerta, one of the world’s largest unconventional hydrocarbon deposits, spanning some 30,000 square kilometres across four provinces in central and southern Argentina.
Before the war in Ukraine, Russia supplied nearly 40 percent of the gas consumed in Italy, mostly via pipelines through Ukraine, according to a study by the Brookings Institution think tank.
In the first quarter of 2021, 47 percent of Europe’s gas imports came from Russia.
Since then, European countries have imposed a series of sanctions on Russian firms and are weighing additional measures targeting the country’s critical energy sector.
– TIMES/AFP
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