Argentine oil company YPF expects to begin exporting 180,000 barrels of oil per day through a port in Rio Negro province from January as part of the VMOS project, Chief Executive Horacio Marin said on Wednesday.
"We will start exporting in January, first 180,000 barrels per day, then 360,000 barrels per day by mid-year and 550,000 barrels per day in 2028," Marin said at the Vaca Muerta Investment Forum in Buenos Aires.
"We are already considering expanding to 700,000 barrels per day," he added.
VMOS is a consortium that includes YPF, Vista Energy's Argentina unit, Pampa Energia and Pan American Sur, among other companies.
The group is building a 437-kilometre pipeline to transport crude from the Vaca Muerta shale formation in Neuquen province to a port on Argentina's Atlantic coast in Rio Negro province. Vaca Muerta is one of the world's largest shale oil reserves.
Argentina's government is counting on Vaca Muerta, a vast shale formation roughly the size of Belgium, to help reduce costly energy imports and bolster economic growth.
The country posted an energy trade surplus of $7.8 billion in 2025. With oil prices rising this year amid the Middle East conflict, analysts estimate the surplus could approach $11 billion in 2026.
Speaking about a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, Marin said YPF expects to finalise by year-end an agreement with Italy's Eni and XRG, the international investment arm of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The project is expected to have annual LNG production capacity of 12 million tonnes, with the potential to expand to 18 million tonnes.
Marin said tenders have already been launched for a processing plant in Neuquen, where oil and gas will be separated, as well as for the construction of a 48-inch-wide natural gas pipeline, which he described as Argentina's largest.
Tenders for the pipes themselves are expected to be launched within two months, he added. The pipeline will have capacity to transport 100 million cubic metres of gas per day.
(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Isabel Teles; Editing by Kylie Madry)