Horacio Marinpresident of Exploration and Production of the company Tecpetrol, will be the new head of YPF during the government of Javier Milei, according to sources from the oil sector. Is about a trustworthy man from the CEO of the Techint Group, Paolo Roccawho in recent weeks was one of the few industrialists who publicly bowed – with campaign contribution included– by the far-right.
Marín’s announcement against YPF, a company that the elected president of La Libertad Avanza intends privatizeit will only be made official this Thursday or Friday.
Who is Horacio Marín
Marín, who has been collaborating for some time with the technical teams of La Libertad Avanza coordinated by Nicolás Posse, is a chemical engineer received from the University of La Platawith a postgraduate degree in Petroleum from the University of Texas and another from Stanford.
He spent almost his entire professional career in Tecpetrolwhere he joined in 1988, more than 35 years ago, as a reservist.
Currently, according to the media specialized in energy and mining Econo Journalis the Paolo Rocca’s confidantleader of Techint, when it is necessary to discuss issues related to the technical exploitation of a deposit and everything that happens in the hydrocarbon subsoil.
Tecpetrol, the oil company of the Techint group, where Marín is president of Exploration and Production, produces about 20 million cubic meters per day (MMm3/day) of shale gas in Fortín de Piedra, and contributes 16% of the total gas supply of Argentina.
Privatize YPF, one of the first measures confirmed by Milei
One of the first definitions that Milei left after the victory he obtained on Sunday against Sergio Massa was that both the public media and YPF will be privatized. “Everything that can be in the hands of the private sector is going to be in the hands of the private sector”assured the president-elect, almost verbatim quoting the Menemist Roberto José Dromi.
“YPF must first be recomposed. The deterioration that they have done to the company in terms of results, so that it is worth much less than the moment in which it was expropriated, requires that it must first be recomposed,” said the far-right.
“In the transition that we are thinking about for the energy issue, both Enarsa and YPF have a role to play while these structures are rationalized and created to create value so that they can be sold at a very beneficial price for Argentines. . In short, the objective is to sell both companies, but not now,” he added.
This Monday, the company share price on the New York market (in Buenos Aires it was not listed due to the holiday) it rose up to 40% in response to Milei’s victory. The increase was even above the rest of the ADRs of Argentine companies listed in the United States.
No price formation
In mid-September, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo, Javier Milei’s energy reference and future Energy Secretary of his next government, gave a talk at the Petroleum Club, a select space that brings together the main businessmen in the hydrocarbon sector. There he was consulted about the future of YPF and left some key definitions in line with what Milei now stated.
“We want to organize YPF’s business units. There is YPF Luz, YPF Agro, there are many business units,” Chirillo said and then added: “YPF must be reorganized before designing its form of privatization. “Identical measures also with Enarsa.”
Chirillo remarked that time “It is important in the short term to refrain from using YPF as a tool of intervention in the price formation policy”.
This point marks a turnaround with respect to what the company has been doing in recent years, when despite the increase in costs, it stopped increases due to government directives. This brake also served to discipline the rest of the market because YPF has a market share that exceeds 50% and if it freezes its prices the rest of the companies are forced to follow the same path, because if it sells well above the company leader its market share can be reduced rapidly.
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