Italy's Eni and Argentina's YPF have finalised an engineering agreement on a Vaca Muerta liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, they said in a presentation on Friday to sign the deal.
Eni and YPF in June signed an initial accord to cooperate on the development of gas resources from the Vaca Muerta field in Argentina.
Eni at that time said the deal would cover production, treatment, transportation and liquefaction of gas through floating units for a total capacity of 12 million tonnes per year.
"YPF will be responsible for the upstream, and we will be responsible for the floating liquefaction," Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said at the event on Friday. "We need to reach the market before 2029."
YPF CEO Horacio Marin said the project will require drilling 800 new wells and aims to double the company's 2024 gas production.
Marin estimated the initiative will need $25 billion in infrastructure investment and $15 billion for upstream development.
(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski and Walter Bianchi, Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)
