YPF 'LLL Oil' (shale-oil mega-development)
YPF mega-development: plateau of 240,000 bbl/d in 2032, 1,152 wells. A signal of the scale jump in Neuquén upstream leveraged on already-secured evacuation (VMOS).
How to supply it
what we have for a supplier, and how to request it
What we have on this project for a supplier
Who decides the purchase, who you invoice and where a new supplier registers.
Which lines each phase buys and when the window opens for each one.
Which they are, why it will need them and who could provide them.
All of this is surveyed and verified against its source. Crossed with what you sell —which of them your products suit, how to reach it and when— it is in your company report. Request the report
We cross what you manufacture or do against the 4 phases of this project and tell you which ones you fit into and when each one buys. Two pages, with the evidence behind them.
Where my company can get inThe project
what it is, the route, the owners, the works and the contractors
Who owns it
YPF, owner of 100% of the project; the crude leaves through VMOS, in which it is a shareholder verif Aug 11, 2026 ↗
The works, milestone by milestone
The second-quarter 2026 report is YPF's first SEC document that names the project, and it gives the progress of its evacuation works: «La Angostura Sur Evacuation Project... reached more than 60% progress and is expected to be operational in 3Q26», against roughly 20 % declared in the first-quarter report verif. The revamping of the Loma La Lata gas treatment plant was completed in the same quarter.
By Resolución 141/2026, signed on June 22 and published on the 23rd, the Secretaría de Energía authorises YPF S.A. to build the «PC LAS a Colector 13 ISTMO» gas pipeline —from the La Angostura I and II and Loma La Lata – Sierra Barrosa areas— on the section that crosses the Cerros Colorados Hydroelectric Complex concession, where it crosses the Planicie Banderita dam. The authorisation obliges YPF to comply with the provincial environmental licence (Resolución 672/2026), which requires shut-off valves on both sides of crossings beneath water bodies, environmental insurance with sufficient cover and a Special Environmental Certificate for contractors handling waste, and to follow the dam safety agency's recommendation on maximum levels of the Mari Menuco reservoir between chainage 13+500 and 14+000. The dam concessionaire had asked that works not begin until the LLL-401 environmental incident at Loma La Lata, outstanding since 2020, was remediated; YPF posted a surety bond in its favour and the concessionaire gave its consent to the works on April 7, 2026.
YPF files the LLL Oil project under the RIGI: USD 25 billion over 15 years, more than 1,150 wells in inventory and a target plateau of around 240,000 barrels a day from 2032, with 100 % of the crude exported through the Vaca Muerta Sur pipeline.
Public environmental hearing for the «Desarrollo Integral Actividad Bloque LANOR II 2026–2027» project in Añelo, held under article 31 of provincial Ley 1875 and non-binding: around 60 people attended. The project as submitted declares 12 producing well pads, 56 wells to be drilled and completed, access roads, 2 water intake sites, 18 pipelines with pig traps and 11 diversion sites.
Decree 276/2025 carves 352.258 km² out of the Loma La Lata – Sierra Barrosa concession and grants YPF the La Angostura Sur I and La Angostura Sur II unconventional exploitation concessions, «for a term of thirty-five (35) years», with the clock running from 31 October 2024.
The same decree sets an investment commitment: seven horizontal wells with 2,000-metre laterals and 28 fracturing stages, four in La Angostura Sur I for USD 53,980,000 and three in La Angostura Sur II for USD 41,920,000, to be executed within four years of its publication. If it is not met, the province may start the revocation of both concessions, after a 90-calendar-day formal notice verif. It is the only investment commitment set by an act of the State that we found for this project, against the USD 25 billion the company announces prob.
YPF and the Province of Neuquén sign the Hydrocarbon Investment Agreement that gives rise to the two concessions of the project's flagship block.
What it leaves in Neuquén
jobs, works, taxes, promises and the outlook
The works that stay behind
The infrastructure that stays standing once the works end, with its size and its source.
Crude treatment plant at La Angostura Sur I
Productivem³ of oil a day (about 63,000 barrels, our calculation) and 4 million m³ a day of compressed gas; in August 2026 market analysis attributed 80,000 barrels per day to it
the block for the 35 years of the concession: it is the facility that sets how much crude the area can dispatch, and the rest of the ramp-up depends on its completion
Crude treatment plant with an integrated gas compressor plant, commissioned in October 2026: it processes 10,000 m³ of oil a day (about 63,000 barrels, our calculation) and compresses 4 million m³ of gas a day. It cost about USD 400 million and was built by AESA as main contractor, with more than 20 local and national companies and about 1,300 people at peak construction prob. In August, market analysis attributed 80,000 barrels a day to it and flagged it as the condition for the rest of the ramp-up prob.
Evacuation pipeline from La Angostura Sur to the Loma La Lata – Centenario system
Productivethe block and YPF's South Hub: it is the connection that takes the crude out of the area into the trunk system
This is how YPF itself describes it in its second-quarter 2026 report: «La Angostura Sur Evacuation Project: the construction of a new pipeline connecting our new flagship shale oil block and South Hub to LLL-Centenario pipeline, reached more than 60% progress and is expected to be operational in 3Q26» — a new pipeline connecting the flagship block and the South Hub to the trunk system.
Revamping of the Loma La Lata gas treatment plant
Productiveall the associated gas produced in the Loma La Lata – Sierra Barrosa area, out of which the project's two concessions were carved
Verbatim from YPF's second-quarter 2026 report: «Loma La Lata gas treatment plant, during 2Q26 we completed the revamping work». Of the rest of the work in the area, the same report put the La Angostura Sur evacuation pipeline at over 60 % complete and the Hub Sur gas pipelines being completed between the third quarter of 2026 and the first of 2027 verif. In October 2026 the La Angostura Sur crude treatment plant was added prob.
«PC LAS a Colector 13 ISTMO» gas pipeline
Powerthe area's gas system: it is what expands evacuation capacity for the gas from the two new concessions
Work authorised by Resolución 141/2026 of the Secretaría de Energía, published on June 23, 2026. On June 2 YPF had filed the documentation required before the start, and the authorisation obliges it to report the start date, the planned timeframe and the completion date to the environmental authority. It crosses the Planicie Banderita dam, in an area the basin authority rates as highly water-sensitive, and therefore requires shut-off valves on both sides of crossings beneath water bodies, environmental insurance and waste handling by certified companies.
What it already pays in taxes and royalties
The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. Royalties and production taxes begin with operation.
Who promised what
We have not surveyed the public promises about this project. A dated, verifiable commitment with its source closes them.
What could stall it
risks and how to track them
- What could stall it — We have not documented this project’s risks. An identifiable vector with its source closes them.
- How to tell whether it is advancing — We have not defined this project’s indicators: what observable fact marks its progress still has to be identified.
How we verified this
the act, the gaps and the sources
The RIGI act, in detail
The project has been filed under the RIGI and has not been approved yet. The instrument is published in the Boletín Oficial once the Committee approves the accession.
What we could not confirm
There are 4 in this project. Each says why it could not be confirmed and what it would take to close it.
H-01Who has already won work ON THIS PROJECT+
The YPF contracts circulating in connection with this development are CORPORATE and are not publicly tied to the project: the multi-year completions deal with Halliburton, the drilling technology deal with Baker Hughes, the DLS Archer rigs. We opened Halliburton's press release on 5 September 2026 and it says only «resulted from a competitive process» — no names, no amount, no term, no sets and no block, just «Vaca Muerta». That also brings down the list of losers in circulation (SLB, Baker Hughes and Calfrac): one of them does not even have a fracturing fleet in the country and three months later signed its own contract with YPF.
H-02When construction starts and when operation begins+
The schedule of a RIGI project is read in the recitals of its admission resolution, and this project has no resolution published in the Official Gazette yet: it has been filed or announced, not approved. What circulates in the press are tentative company dates, with no act fixing them.
H-03Who is laying the La Angostura Sur evacuation oil pipeline+
The La Angostura Sur crude treatment plant already has a main contractor published in the press (AESA, October 2026); the evacuation oil pipeline has no published builder. And there is a documented reason, which is not that the work has gone uncontracted: art. 12 of Decreto 276/2025 exempts from stamp duty the instruments structuring the project but NOT those «entered into for the provision of operational services», meaning those contracts exist, are taxed, and are not published in the act. The correct label is «no published contractor» as of September 6, 2026, not «not contracted».
H-04How much capacity the revamping of the Loma La Lata gas plant adds+
The second-quarter 2026 report declares the work finished but does not publish the figure. It was the only work that report declared finished, and its size goes unquantified.
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