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YPF is Argentina's biggest oil and gas company, drilling, refining, and selling fuel.
YPF is Argentina's biggest oil and gas company, and it does two main things. First, it pulls oil and gas out of the ground, mostly from a huge shale rock formation in Patagonia called Vaca Muerta, which is one of the largest shale oil reserves outside the United States. Second, it turns that crude into gasoline, diesel, and other fuels at its refineries and sells them through a nationwide network of service stations, plus it sells natural gas and petrochemicals. Think of it as the country's energy backbone: it drills, refines, and runs the gas stations, so it touches almost every driver and industry in Argentina. The company is majority-owned by the Argentine government, which controls the biggest stake, while the rest trades on the New York Stock Exchange and in Buenos Aires.
How does it make money? Mostly by selling fuel and natural gas to regular people and businesses inside Argentina, and increasingly by exporting crude oil abroad. Vaca Muerta is the growth engine — output there keeps climbing, and YPF has been pushing to ship more oil to foreign buyers, which brings in valuable U.S. dollars. It also runs a big refining and chemicals business. Because fuel prices in Argentina have historically been set with political pressure, profits can swing wildly depending on government policy, inflation, and the peso's value.
The story matters here. YPF used to be Argentina's state oil company, was sold to Spain's Repsol in the 1990s, then got taken back by the government in 2012 — a move that led to a long legal fight and a multibillion-dollar payout. Today YPF is spending heavily to grow Vaca Muerta production, which means most of its cash goes back into drilling and building pipelines rather than dividends. It's a bet that Argentina's shale can turn the country from an energy importer into an energy exporter, but it's a bet financed with a lot of debt and exposed to a country famous for economic turbulence.
Saved answer · last researched 14 Oct 2026