YPF profits down 12.2 percent in 2012

State-controlled energy firm YPF presented its balance for 2012 yesterday, revealing a profit of 3.9 billion pesos, which represents a 12.2 percent drop in comparison with 2011, when the company’s majority was owned by Spain’s Repsol.

Speaking at a press conference at the firm’s headquarters, YPF CEO Miguel Galuccio claimed profitability was “affected” by the losses registered by its subsidiaries, which weighed in at 1.182 billion pesos and “dragged deferred liabilities of 1.943 billion pesos.”

Galuccio added that crude oil production increased 2.2 percent, and emphasized that the declining trend of previous years (-7.6 percent in 2011, -1.4 percent in 2010 and -4.9 percent in 2009) was finally reversed.

Gas production decreased 2.3 percent but YPF maintained that the “decline was slowed” while the total production of hydrocarbons reached the equivalent of 485,000 daily barrels of oil, implying a 0.6 percent decrease.

“Production in 2012 falls in line with the strategic plan presented last August,” Galuccio asserted.

According to the official report, YPF’s total investment in 2012 reached 16.485 billion pesos, which represents a record 25.6 percent increase in comparison with 2011.

Amid rumours of a renewed link with Repsol, Galuccio revealed that the company aims to increase investment by 60 percent this year to develop an “aggressive plan of exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons.”

Herald with DyN