YPF, Argentina's state-controlled oil and gas company, filed for Argentina's Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI) for its Bajo del Toro project, with estimated lifetime investment of $8.729 billion.
The company said on Friday, Oct. 30, that the project covers the Bajo del Toro and Bajo del Toro Norte blocks in the northern part of Vaca Muerta, one of the world's largest shale plays, in Argentina's Neuquén Basin. YPF is the operator with 65%. Vista Energy Argentina, the Argentine subsidiary of Vaca Muerta-focused independent Vista Energy, holds 35%.
The plan targets shale oil development with associated gas. YPF expects to reach a plateau of about 80,000 barrels of oil per day (bbl/d) and 3 million cubic meters per day (MMm³/d) of gas between 2033 and 2040, drilling 440 wells over the life of the project. The company estimates exports of about $25 billion between 2027 and 2055 and some 2,900 direct jobs across the construction and production phases. According to YPF, the development will also drive construction of the infrastructure needed to process and evacuate the area's oil and gas.
Bajo del Toro is one of three projects in the North Hub that YPF announced on Wednesday, Oct. 28, alongside its third-quarter results. The North Hub is the company's development cluster in the northern oil window of Vaca Muerta. That day, YPF said it would bring five blocks into the regime, with estimated investment of $44 billion over 26 years, about 2,200 wells and peak production of 270,000 bbl/d of shale oil. Bajo del Toro accounts for $8.729 billion and 440 wells of that total. The other two projects are Narambuena, which YPF shares equally with Chevron, the U.S. energy major, and La Escalonada and Rincón La Ceniza. YPF holds 25% of those two blocks through its vehicle Vaca Muerta Inversiones (VMI), alongside Shell Argentina, the local subsidiary of energy major Shell; Pluspetrol, an Argentine independent oil and gas producer; and Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén (GyP), Neuquén province's state oil and gas company.
The application now goes to the regime's Evaluation Committee. If the committee approves it, the project's admission is formalized by a resolution of Argentina's Ministry of Economy, as happened with Bajo del Choique–La Invernada, the Pluspetrol–GyP development in the same area that Pluspetrol acquired from ExxonMobil. The RIGI, created in 2024 under the Bases Law, offers 30 years of tax, customs and foreign-exchange stability to projects investing at least $200 million.
YPF's Planned Bajo del Toro Norte Crude Plant Is Sized Near the Oil Plateau
The oil volume YPF expects at plateau is close to the capacity of the treatment plant it plans to build at Bajo del Toro Norte. According to the environmental impact study the company filed in Neuquén province, the plant was designed for 12,500 cubic meters per day (m³/d) of oil in two trains. The document itself equates that to about 78,600 bbl/d, and says the plant would take 25 months to build. The same study includes a compressor plant rated at 4 MMm³/d of gas in two trains of 2 MMm³/d each. Only one train would come online at first, with the second reserved for a later expansion. The project's gas plateau is 3 MMm³/d.
The starting point is far lower. Bajo del Toro Norte produced 5,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in the first quarter, measured on a 100% basis and all of it shale oil. YPF reported the figure in May, when it closed the purchase of its additional stake. In its third-quarter report, the company listed the block among those that drove its shale output and recorded higher activity at Bajo del Toro.
Gas Pipeline to El Portón Is Complete
On the gas side, YPF said in the same report that it had completed the pipeline linking the Narambuena and Bajo del Toro blocks to the El Portón industrial complex. It also continued advancing the North Hub gas treatment facilities, which it expects to bring into commercial operation in the first quarter of 2027. The company's statement puts the start of the project's exports in that same year.
Water is the other front. Neuquén province's Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources called a virtual public hearing for December 10 on the "Proyecto Captación Hub Norte_NRB-BDT", a water-intake project. Under it, YPF plans to install ten centralized facilities and lay seven aqueducts to supply water to Narambuena and Bajo del Toro Norte.
"The northern hub is not the same as the south in terms of infrastructure and services," Ana Simonato, country manager of Chevron Argentina, said on Oct. 20 at AOG Patagonia. The oil and gas exhibition is organized in Neuquén by the Argentine Institute of Oil and Gas (IAPG). Chevron operates El Trapial in the same area and filed that project for the RIGI with $13.8 billion in planned investment.
YPF Began Exploring the Block with Equinor in 2018
In January 2018, YPF signed definitive agreements with Statoil, now Equinor, the Norwegian energy major, which took 50% of the Bajo del Toro exploration permit. Statoil committed to pay $30 million and to fund the work program up to $270 million, with YPF as operator. In 2021, Neuquén province split the area in two. Bajo del Toro Norte, covering 113.82 square kilometers, received a 35-year unconventional production concession with a pilot plan of 14 horizontal wells and investment of $117.7 million. Bajo del Toro, covering 42.97 square kilometers, remained at the exploration stage.
The partnership changed this year. In February, Vista Energy agreed to buy Equinor's Argentine subsidiary and its 50% stake in both blocks, and to assign an additional 15% to YPF. The transaction closed on May 7, according to YPF's filing with Argentina's securities regulator, the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV). The deal left YPF with the 65% stated in the application.
Bajo del Toro joins two earlier YPF filings under the regime. The first was LLL Oil, the $25 billion development it submitted in May. The second was Argentina LNG, the phased LNG export project YPF leads with ENI, the Italian energy company, and XRG, ADNOC's international investment arm. Argentina LNG was submitted in August with expected lifetime investment of about $51 billion.