The energy company Aconcagua Energía is expanding. Created ago less than 10 years old, Now the company aims to purchase some assets that YPF will soon put up for sale, and is betting on the deregulation of the electricity and gas markets that Javier Milei plans together with the Energy Minister, Eduardo Rodríguez Chirillo and his advisor Federico Sturzenegger.
The company was founded as an oil company in 2015 by two former YPF managers and grew through the acquisition of conventional assets in Mendoza and Río Negro, eventually expanding into the oilfield services, gas marketing and electricity sectors, with the purchase of Orazul Energy last December.
In dialogue with ClarionJavier Basso, founder, vice president and chief financial officer of Aconcagua Energía, said: “We try to have one line of business in oil and gas, another in oil services (drilling towers and equipment) and another in generating electricity, where we started with renewables and now we have a thermal power plant and a hydraulic dam with the purchase of Orazul.
And he was excited about a small business that could make a big leap, thanks to energy reforms: gas marketing. Today the Wholesale Electricity Market Management Company (Cammesa) regulates the system and functions as an essential intermediary and, at the same time, “aggregator” of demand. The joint venture between private companies and the national state purchases gas from oil companies through the Gas Plan – valid until 2028 – and resells it to electricity producers. But soon we could return to a pattern like the one that governed between 2018 and 2019when oil companies, marketing companies and manufacturers freely negotiated supply contracts and achieved better profits.
Together with Diego Trabucco, an industrial engineer, Basso founded Aconcagua Energía with part of his savings. The company’s founders saw a potential market niche in conventional areas, in the midst of the Vaca Muerta boom (where oil and gas are extracted with an unconventional technique, shale and tight, which requires larger investments but provides higher returns). AND Their business idea is to continue expanding while the rest of the oil companies focus almost exclusively on the Neuquén basin.
Recently, the company Petrolera Aconcagua Energía (PAESA) doubled its reserves and obtained an improvement in its credit rating from Fix SCR, a local affiliate of Fitch Ratings, reaching the “A+” category in the local capital market. With this support, will issue debt this Tuesday the 27th to raise between $20 and $40 millionwhich will help you finance your investment plan.
The organizer and placer of these four Negotiable Obligations (ONs) with a duration of 36 and 48 months is the Bank of Services and Transactions (BST). Two securities will be Dollar Linked (they are subscribed in pesos and follow the exchange rate) and the other two, at a fixed rate in dollars, which That would be about 5 to 7% per year.
In 2023 the group provided US$ 114 million in investments, including the purchase of Orazul Energy from the American investment fund Square Capital 9.2 million dollars and this year I would spend approx 90 million dollars.
Only Petrolera Aconcagua Energía achieved an EBITDA close to that 40 million dollars At a 30% margin, it achieved production of 13,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day and drilled 9 wells.
Another condition that will strengthen your business is the trend of the local crude oil market towards international prices (import and export parity in the domestic market). This is Gasoline and diesel produced by Argentina are paid the same as in the world. After a few years of wide gap, which affected the potential of producers, today the oil companies are profiting 65 and 66 dollars per barrel of crude oil, while the parity price is around 70-72 dollars.
Source: Clarin
