The company’s plans with Argentina
Chile is seeking to diversify its state oil company, ENAP, by strengthening hydrogen and renewable energy as new business units. However, its hydrocarbon supply strategy remains closely tied to Vaca Muerta, Argentina’s flagship shale play in Patagonia.
That link was one of the keys behind ENAP’s positive financial performance in 2025.
According to an official statement, ENAP doubled its earnings from the previous year and has now posted profits for five consecutive years. The Chilean state company reported net income of $848 million, up 108% from the $408 million earned in 2024. Between 2021 and 2025, ENAP generated cumulative profits of $2.537 billion.
Shale oil is key for Chile
Vaca Muerta played a prominent role in ENAP’s performance following a long-term crude supply agreement signed with YPF, later joined by Vista Energy, Shell and Equinor. The contracts total $12 billion to secure supply. ENAP depends on Vaca Muerta for about 25% of its crude supply through 2033.
The main route for transporting oil from Vaca Muerta to Chile is the Oleoducto Trasandino (OTASA), a pipeline system that crosses the Andes Mountains with a capacity of 110,000 barrels per day. It is currently shipping the equivalent of 70,000 barrels per day, according to Argentina’s National Hydrocarbons Transportation Directorate. The 400-kilometer pipeline was shut down for 17 years before being reactivated in May 2023 by its partners: ENAP, YPF and Chevron. Additional shippers have included Vista, Equinor, Shell and, at one point, Petronas.
Vaca Muerta with an outlet to the Pacific?
Argentina’s unconventional crude is transported to ENAP’s Bío Bío refinery, located near the port of San Vicente in the city of Talcahuano. In late 2025, ENAP authorized the export of Argentine shale oil from that terminal, an initiative that had been under discussion for some time among authorities in the Bío Bío region and Argentina’s Neuquén province, as well as ENAP and YPF executives.
Julio Friedmann, ENAP’s CEO, said in December that the agreement would allow Vaca Muerta crude to be exported via San Vicente, in Talcahuano, turning the site into an oil integration hub for shipments across the Pacific Ocean.
This would give Vaca Muerta another maritime outlet, this time via the Pacific, in addition to its established Atlantic routes such as Puerto Rosales, which connects to the Oldelval pipeline system and OTAMÉRICA storage facilities.
At the same time, the unconventional oil industry is awaiting completion and initial testing of the Vaca Muerta Oil Sur (VMOS) pipeline. The project will transport crude across the entire province of Río Negro, from the pumping station in Allen to a new port at Punta Colorada on the Gulf of San Matías.
Nothing is by chance
Friedmann highlighted the company’s debt reduction as a key achievement.
“In 2025 we will end with total financial debt of US$3.103bn on a gross basis and a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 1.8 times,” he said in the official statement.
Among the main drivers behind the strong 2025 results were higher sales of high-value proprietary production, supported by a change in sales mix and optimization of logistics and financial costs as part of the company’s multi-year deleveraging process, as well as improved average international refining margins.
“None of this is the result of chance. We achieved a sustained increase in our production capacity with a focus on operational excellence, active cost management and the acceleration of new sources of income; we have had five consecutive years of profits and we have the lowest level of debt in more than a decade. All of this is thanks to a long-term strategy and a great deal of effort by the company’s female and male workers,” the ENAP executive added.
Beyond its agreements and plans tied to Vaca Muerta, ENAP also posted strong results from its international division in Egypt and Ecuador. While ENAP Sipetrol, the name of its subsidiary, previously operated in Argentina, both onshore in the Golfo San Jorge basin and offshore in the Austral basin, it has divested those assets in recent years.