Holders of production concessions, including YPF, are obliged to pay royalties to the government of the province in which production takes place. Upon concession expiration or termination oil and gas wells, operating and maintenance equipment and facilities automatically return to the Argentinean government. In such event, no payment is made to concessionaire. Crude oil and refining activities are subject to registration requirements. The registry of oil companies is kept by the Secretary of Energy.
Registration is granted based on general financial and technical standards.
Holders of oil and gas production concessions have the right to sell such production without restriction either in domestic or export markets. Likewise, refiners may either obtain crude oil from suppliers within Argentina or outside Argentina. Nevertheless, for that period in which the National Executive finds domestic production to be insufficient to satisfy domestic demand, producers, refiners and exporters are to sell their production in the domestic market and shall receive a price not lower than that price of similar imported oil, gas or petroleum products. As a consequence of the deregulation and privatization processes the natural gas production has increased considerably. The estimated production for 1998 is of 8,479,940 thousand cubic meters.