YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So clearly, we would definitely tackle those opportunities before considering other sources.

Unidentified Company Representative: From Puente, Konstantinos Papalias, is asking could you provide an estimate on fuel imports for 2023?

Alejandro Lew: Yes. It clearly will depend on how demand continues to evolve. What we have seen so far in the last few months, diesel demand has come down, primarily on the back of the realities in the agribusiness sector. And gasoline continues to go higher. So — but all in all, we ended the year 2022 at an average of 11% in terms of total fuel imported as a proportion of our total local sales. And that is slightly above average and above historical average after some peak that we had in the third quarter. But then — so we would expect probably similar levels for 2023 as well.

Unidentified Company Representative: From Itau, Alejandra Aranda is asking, could you give us an idea in terms of YPF crude oil exports going forward?

Alejandro Lew: Yes. clearly, as a 5-year plan, we would expect to reach those 150,000 or so barrels per day that we are targeting. Clearly, that would depend on us being able to deliver on our growth expectations. But we should be starting to become an exporter of crude as early as this year. Hopefully, if things go well, we should start exporting through the pipeline that the minister mentioned also into Chile as early as May of this year. On an initial phase before the new VacaMuerta Norte pipeline that will connect and will increase the capacity to transport oil from the center of VacaMuerta into the northern part of Neuquen, where the trans-Andean pipeline starts. So we would expect an early stage export of about 40,000 barrels.

That’s not only YPF, YPF and some partners that are teaming up with us for that opportunity and probably raising that to about 70,000 barrels a day once the VacaMuerta Norte pipeline is fully up and running probably at some point in the fourth quarter.

Unidentified Company Representative: And the last question comes from Santander, Walter Chiarvesio wants to know what is your EBITDA margin expectations in 2027 by shifting to sell cheaper oil?

Alejandro Lew: I’m not sure about the cheaper oil last part of the question. But basically, based on the numbers that we put out, the margin would be probably in the order of 35% to 40%. But again, assuming the — clearly, there is a lot of sensitivities that need to be taking into consideration for that. But roughly speaking, we believe that total margin should trend upwards. And clearly, VacaMuerta being very profitable and so we would see probably margins trending upwards from where we are today and getting closer to the 40% mark. So somewhere in the mid-30s to high 30s would be our expectation.

Unidentified Company Representative: Thank you so much for your accurate answers. And now we are going to hear again Pablo Gonzalez, Director of YPF.

Pablo Gonzalez: