Repsol YPF

Repsol YPF's History of R+D in Argentina

YPF's first Technology Centre, inaugurated in 1942, was located in the city of Florencio Varela, 30 Km. away from Buenos Aires and La Plata. It had as many as 500 professionals and technicians devoted to Upstream and Downstream activities, including geology and geophysics.

In 1994, with the privatisation of the company, it was decided that the Centre in Florencio Varela should be closed and that two smaller Applied Technology Centres should be opened, one for the Refining and Marketing of oil products (R&M), located in Ensenada (CTA) with a staff of 40 people, and the other devoted to Exploration and Production (E&P), located in Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza (LAE), with 30 people.

In 1996, the LAE was closed and its staff were distributed amongst the Business Units, whilst the CTA maintained its activities in the field of Refining. In 1999, with Repsol YPF already having been formed, the CTA regained its function of tending to all of the operating units and several professionals from the former LAE joined the Centre in order to work in the field of E&P.

In the year 2001, it was integrated into the Technology Unit and was converted into the Centro de Tecnología Argentina - Argentinean Technology Centre (CTA). There are currently just over 100 professionals and technicians working in the fields of E&P and Downstream.