The Argentine state oil company said the agreement includes cooperation in lithium and other critical minerals and hydrocarbon exploration and production.

Argentine state-owned oil company YPF announced today that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (OIL), Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Videsh Limited (OVL) of India for the export of LNG.

GAIL is one of India's leading gas companies, operating more than 16,000 kilometres of gas pipelines. It is responsible for managing LNG purchase contracts in the country. OIL is an integrated oil and gas company in India. With state participation and more than 60 years of operations, the company produces more than 3 million tonnes of crude oil per year. It ranks as the third largest oil producer in the Asian country. OVL, on the other hand, is the second largest oil company in India. It is a subsidiary of the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) with operations in 17 countries. Its production represents almost 15% of India's total.

The estimated goal is to achieve shipments of up to 10 million tons per year to India. In a statement, the Argentine firm indicated that the agreement includes cooperation in lithium and other critical minerals and the exploration and production of hydrocarbons.

The signing of the agreement in New Delhi was attended by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Sinh Puri; Secretary of Petroleum and Gas, Pankaj Jain; Executive Director of Business Development of OIL, Ranjan Goswami; Executive Director of LNG of GAIL, Satyabarata Bairagi; Vice President of Business Development of OVL, Swati Sathe; and President and CEO of YPF, Horacio Marín.

"It is a great satisfaction to be able to move forward with India on this agreement to potentially supply them with gas. We are convinced that the country has an opportunity to become an energy exporter and achieve the goal sought by the entire industry of generating US$30 billion in revenues over the next 10 years," said the president of YPF. "I would like to thank the commitment and dedication of the Argentine Ambassador in India and his entire team who from the very beginning were involved and contributed to achieving this goal."

YPF stated that the signing of the MOU successfully closed the tour that the president of YPF began in January of this year through Israel, Korea and Japan with the aim of generating interest and opening those markets to the gas produced by Vaca Muerta.