Conflict between YPF and maritime: tank ships slow down

The United Maritime Workers Union (SOMU), and the Overseas Captains Center, begin at zero hours this Saturday a “direct action measure” that includes a stoppage on the YPF tankers that supply essential services.

As indicated by the union, the strike is carried out “due to the failure of the state company for foreign-flagged ships that do cabotage work to be manned exclusively by Argentine personnel.”

“All YPF ships have already completed 30 consecutive days of permanence and it is their duty to abide by the law,” said SOMU Secretary General Raúl Durdos. “Therefore, we initiated a direct action measure to find a response to this situation of illegality,” he stressed.

According to SOMI, Law 27,419 orders that “All foreign flag ships and naval devices authorized to operate in the national cabotage for periods exceeding thirty (30) consecutive or non-consecutive days in the year, must be manned exclusively by Argentine personnel”

In a harsh statement, the SOMU warned that “the law does not have an extension and all the deadlines established by it have already been met, so we will file a complaint with the Justice so that strict compliance with it becomes effective.”

Representatives of YPF, the heads of the unions involved, and national authorities participated in the meetings held at the Undersecretariat of Waterways. “We all agreed, but the law remains unfulfilled” remarked from the unions.

YPF restructuring

YPF, the state-owned majority oil company, advanced last week with a restructuring of its main operational management positions, aimed at a new stage that will seek to reorder the financial and productive aspects which will be in the hands of the CEO, Sergio Affronti, and his new team with a strong Ypefian identity.

The central axes of this new stage will seek to centralize efforts in the production of hydrocarbons, with a revaluation of both unconventional and conventional resources, and at the same time generate the financial conditions to face maturities for more than 1,000 million that the company has by 2021.

“This restructuring puts in place a team of professionals who know the company very well. We reorganized the team to grow again. YPF must once again be the leader in the industry,” said Affronti, a company historian who faces its third stage at YPF, when communicating changes within the company.

Company sources, after announcing this afternoon the nine driving structure, explained that “YPF seeks to return to the essence of being a leader in the production of oil and gas, and that had to be reflected in the new team that will move to be made up of experts with training and long experience in the company “, although they registered other intermittent steps by the industry.

In this sense, the YPF board of directors informed the market of the redesign of the Upstream vice-presidency, which will lead to a non-conventional Upstream vice-presidency, which will be in charge of Pablo Iuliano, an engineer who joined the oil company in 1998 and developed there his career until 2017, when he joined the ranks of Tecpetrol.

YPF seeks to reorder financial and productive aspects.

In the Techint Group company, Iuliano worked in the last three years as Regional Manager in Neuquén and carried out the Fortín de Piedra project, considered in Vaca Muerta as the model of massive non-conventional development, since in one year that area It became the largest gas producer in Argentina with a peak of 17 million cubic meters per day.

“Iuliano’s return to the company -in replacement of Pablo Bizzotto- with his knowledge of the unconventional and the historic decision that for the first time a vice presidency be based in Neuquén, and not in the Puerto Madero tower, mark that the company will not neglect the capital raised in Vaca Muerta “; the sources explained.

With the same criteria, the other position that was created was the vice-presidency of Usptream Convencional, where the appointment of Gustavo Astie, a cuyano who joined the company 15 years ago, ensures that he will apply the experience in the unconventional of the last five years. in valuing the capital that YPF has in its conventional wells.

“In the midst of this price crisis, YPF has much to take advantage of its conventional operations and the application of the new secondary and tertiary recovery techniques that were launched last year and which is nothing more than the transfer of development efficiency from the unconventional model to old wells, “said the spokesmen.

Afronti said that these appointments will allow “to reorganize the team to grow again” and carry out “a new stage facing the company, for which the Upstream business will be led through these two vice presidencies that will allow sustainability focused on their respective operations “.

Aim for gas production

The other productive focus that will be sought to strengthen is the production of Natural Gas, for which in the position of Vice President of Gas & Energy Santiago Martínez Tanoira was appointed, another ypefiano who joined the company in 1998 and is presented as the person in charge of seeking greater efficiency in his key segment for the company.

Martínez Tanoira, who will replace Marcos Browne, was manager of the Mendoza Regional after the nationalization of the company and since 2017 Downstream Vice President.

In his replacement in the Downstream vice-presidency – the fuel refining and commercialization business, YPF’s main source of income – he was appointed his second until today, Mauricio Martín, so continuity rather than a reformulation of conduction was anticipated.

At the same time, it was decided to convert the Vice Presidency of Operations and Transformation into the Vice Presidency of Services, which will continue to be in charge of Carlos Alfonsi; while in the vice presidency of Strategy and Business Development will come Marcos Sabelli, replacing. Sergio Giorgi.

Sabelli, who came to the company more than 12 years ago, “will be in charge of the great challenge of putting together the financial strategy that will allow him to face the maturity horizon that the company has in particular in the first quarter of next year, as part of commitments of about $ 1.1 billion for all of 2021. ”

“Although the company has already shown that under normal conditions it would have no problem refinancing its debts in dollars, funding both the local and the foreign markets, the current situation raises questions about the best strategy to adopt in the coming months,” he explained. , in implicit reference to the sovereign debt exchange process.

Finally, the vice presidencies of Human Resources and Environment, Health and Safety, in charge of José Manuel Aggio and Gustavo Chaab, respectively, will become top-level, with a direct report to the General Manager (CEO).

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