(YPF, 12.May.2021) — Argentina’s state oil entity YPF announced financial and operating results for the first quarter 2021. Details follow.
MAIN HIGHLIGHTS OF THE QUARTER
• Strong recovery in profitability with Adjusted EBITDA expanding by 318% sequentially – and only 9.9% below 1Q20 -, mainly backed by a fast recovery in demand for gasoline and diesel, higher realization prices across the board and the materialization of cost efficiencies.
• Local demand for our main refined products (gasoline and diesel) improved beyond expectations increasing 5.5% q/q and 3.6% y/y, but not yet back to pre-COVID levels remaining 5.7% below 1Q19.
• Prices at the pump continued recovering in dollar terms with a sequential increase in the realization price of 10.3% on average for gasoline and diesel, which permitted to pass-through the increases in biofuels’ costs and fuels’ taxes, while also leaving some room for a recovery in our margin.
• Structural cost efficiencies continued to materialize on the back of the company-wide cost cutting plan implemented throughout 2020. OPEX declined 21.5% y/y with positive results on all our business segments.
• Activity in our upstream operations was fully resumed reaching a new record in the number of horizontal wells completed in a quarter, totaling 34 between oil and gas wells within the unconventional segment, out of a total of 48 wells completed throughout all of our operated fields.
• Oil and gas production expanded 3.3% sequentially, including a 4.3% increase in crude oil production to 207.7 Kbbld, with a remarkable 19.7% jump in shale oil production backed by our core hub where output reached its record high in March at 42.0 Kbbld.
• Free cash flow ended in positive territory, allowing us to further reduce our net debt which declined by $324mn to $6,752mn by the end of the quarter – or $888mn below 1Q20.
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