Vaca Muerta:

CEOs & The Strategic Outlook

Daniel González holds a degree in Business Administration from the Catholic University of Argentina. His career highlights include starting at Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS), building an extensive financial career at Merrill Lynch / Bank of America in Buenos Aires and New York, and joining YPF in 2012, where he served as CFO, Interim CEO, and CEO, leading the company's return to international financial markets. Most recently, in 2024, he was appointed Secretary for Energy and Mining Coordination at Argentina's Ministry of Economy.

Neuquén is Argentina’s leading energy hub and the center of unconventional development driven by Vaca Muerta. In 2025, it reached record oil production near 580,000 barrels per day and surpassed 610,000 barrels per day in early 2026. The province also produces more than 90 million cubic meters of natural gas daily. With major infrastructure and export projects underway, production could exceed one million barrels per day by the end of the decade.

Río Negro is part of the Neuquén Basin and combines a long hydrocarbon tradition with growing shale oil development in Vaca Muerta, where wells have achieved productivity above 600 barrels per day. Beyond production, the province is emerging as a strategic energy export hub, with new crude export terminals in Punta Colorada and LNG projects in the San Matías Gulf, positioning itself as a key logistics platform for Vaca Muerta’s global integration.

Horacio Marin holds a Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Throughout his career, he held leadership positions in the Latin American Oil&Gas industry before assuming the presidency and CEO at YPF, the largest oil company in Vaca Muerta. Marín is leading the 4x4 Plan, a program aimed at quadrupling YPF's value and production by 2030. The company is driving significant upstream investments and major infrastructure midstream projects.

Pablo Vera Pinto is Co-Founder and CFO of Vista Energy, Argentina’s leading independent crude oil producer, with a market capitalization exceeding US$ 5 billion. He previously served as Business Development Director at YPF and held board positions at Profertil, Central Dock Sud and Metrogas. Earlier in his career, he worked in private equity, management consulting at McKinsey & Company and investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston. He holds a degree in Economics and an MBA from INSEAD.

Ricardo Markous holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires and a Master’s degree in Management from Stanford University. His 45-year career in the energy industry includes leadership roles at Techint and TGN, and nearly 29 years at Tecpetrol, where he has served as Chief Executive Officer since April 2021.

Felipe Bayón was appointed Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of GeoPark Limited in June 2025. With more than 30 years in the international oil and gas industry, he is widely recognized as one of Latin America’s leading energy executives. As CEO of Ecopetrol from 2017 to 2023, he led 18,000 employees, managed production of 700,000 boe/d and oversaw revenues exceeding $30 billion, while expanding internationally and advancing renewable and infrastructure investments.

Rodolfo Freyre serves as Vice President of Gas, Power and Business Development at Pan American Energy, a leading private global energy company in Argentina and Latin America, where he has worked since February 2015. Throughout his career, he held leadership positions in national and international energy companies, overseeing natural gas and power commercialization at Gasco in Chile, Wintershall, and Enron in Argentina and Brazil. Freyre holds a degree in Business Economics.

Javier Rielo is Senior Vice President for the Americas at TotalEnergies and a member of the company’s Exploration and Production Management Committee. With a career spanning four decades, he has held senior leadership roles across Argentina, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. He previously served as Managing Director of Total Austral and led Exploration-Production and integrated Gas, Renewables and Power activities across the Southern Cone. He holds a degree in Public Accounting from the University of Buenos Aires.

Hugo Eurnekian is an Argentine entrepreneur who serves as the head of Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC), part of the Corporación América Group. With over a decade of experience in the energy sector, he has driven initiatives in biofuels and renewable energy, while also leading strategic acquisitions that have positioned CGC as a significant player in Argentina’s hydrocarbon production. Under his leadership, the company has strengthened its presence in the Austral Basin and the GSJ Basin, initiated operations in Vaca Muerta, and advanced exploration in Palermo Aike, regarded as one of the country’s most promising unconventional reservoirs for the future.