Argentina LNG (YPF, Eni and XRG)

Argentina LNG SAU, the company YPF set up as the project vehicle and which signed the agreement with Río Negro. A second company for the project or its expansion, still unnamed, may be added with the partners. ⚠️ In practice a small supplier does not invoice the project company: it invoices the contractor of each work package.

YPF runs gas production and buys through its own supplier registry; the large works are awarded by tender to contractors, and they are the ones who buy from small suppliers. According to the trade press, the Plaza Huincul treatment plant is led by the SACDE–Tecnimont joint venture and the two pipelines by Pumpco and Bonatti with Contreras Hermanos, which would be in charge of hiring Argentine suppliers; the floating units and the fractionation plant have no contractor. Two provincial authorities that are not the company also have a say over purchasing: in Río Negro, the Secretariat of Energy and Environment, with the Law 5805 registry, which covers this project and its contractors; in Neuquén, the Centro PyME-ADENEU, which certifies the Neuquén supplier under Law 3338.

Río Negro's local-purchasing law covers this project and all its contractors: they must give preference to registered Río Negro suppliers verif · Sep 1, 2025 ↗Law 5805 applies to «all projects to be executed under the incentive regime of national law no. 27742» (art. 1), and the obligated parties are those authorized for the «transport, storage and treatment of energy resources» in the province and «their contractors and subcontractors» (art. 2).

Registering in the Río Negro Suppliers Register: that is what activates the right to match the best bid with up to an 8% price premium verif · Sep 1, 2025 ↗Art. 7 of Ley 5805 requires the Obligated Party to grant the Río Negro Supplier «el derecho de igualar la mejor oferta y obtener la adjudicación», on two conditions: that its bid meets the essential quality, safety and operability requirements of the tender documents, and that its price «no supere la mejor oferta en más de ocho por ciento (8%)»

Being a direct supplier of the liquefaction works, the port, the gas pipeline or the liquids pipeline exempts that work from gross income tax. The fractionation plant is left out verif · Mar 9, 2026 ↗The project's gross income tax exemption «extends to the direct suppliers of goods, works or services of the VPUs, exclusively for their participation in the infrastructure works needed to start up the LIQUEFACTION FACILITIES», including port facilities, the transport system and the liquids pipeline. «Infrastructure works related to the FRACTIONATION PLANT shall not be covered by that benefit».

Río Negro's local-purchasing floor can have exceptions: the agreement lets the Province grant them based on the profiles the project reports verif · Mar 9, 2026 ↗The project vehicles «will inform the Province of Río Negro of the skills, competencies, training, certifications and experience required» and, with that information, «the Province of Río Negro may establish the corresponding exception measures» under Laws 5594, 2904 (replaced by 5804) and 5805. In parallel, the project promotes a technical and vocational training program with Fundación YPF.

In a joint venture, evidencing that at least 51% of the equity or of the decision-making bodies belongs to people domiciled in Río Negro verif · Jun 22, 2026 ↗Decreto 618/26 sets the threshold at 51% of equity or of the decision-making bodies held by people domiciled in Río Negro for a joint venture to qualify as a Río Negro Supplier

In Neuquén, the project's agreements neither create their own local-purchasing rules nor exempt from them: Law 3338 applies as for any operator verif · Jul 6, 2026 ↗Neither the GNL Agreement approved by Law 3566 nor the decrees for the five concessions (777, 778 and 779 of 2026) contain clauses on suppliers, local purchasing or local labor. The agreement does bind YPF to an infrastructure bond of USD 175,000,000 in works or cash, to be defined within 90 days of the final investment decision.

The service supplier's contract in the blocks pays Stamp Tax even though the project is exempt verif · May 29, 2026 ↗The concession decrees exempt the project's structuring instruments from Stamp Tax, «instruments entered into for the provision of operational services in those Concessions not being included as acts required to structure the project».

Certified Neuquén Supplier status, and the rank decides what it is worth: A gives a 9% margin, B gives 6% verif · May 20, 2022 ↗The preference is not a right to charge more: with a bid up to 9 % (band A) or 6 % (band B) above the best non-certified offer, the supplier wins the preference and, having won it, must match that price. What the rule delivers is awarded volume, not unit margin.

The anti-front-company lock: opening a Neuquén subsidiary of an outside firm does not count verif · May 20, 2022 ↗«Purchases from controlling or controlled entities, or from members of the same economic group, shall not be treated as purchases from Neuquén companies» (art. 11 of Ley 3338). And a firm that pays most of its taxes in another jurisdiction is capped on the Company regime box. Establishing yourself has to be real and it takes years.

Certifying also gives you access to the operator's purchasing plan BEFORE the tender verif · Dec 14, 2022 ↗The implementing decree requires the bound parties to report twice a year —on 15 February and 15 August— everything that will go out to tender, and that plan «shall be kept private and may only be viewed by the Enforcement Authority and Certified Neuquén Suppliers». It is not just 6 or 9 points of preference: it is seeing the purchasing pipeline by category before the market does.