YPF Sociedad Anonima

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q2 2020 YPF Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Santiago Wesenach. with Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to YPF's second quarter 2020 earnings call. I hope you and your families are safe. My name is Santiago Wisenach, and I'm the new Investor Relations Manager at YPF. Let me start by saying that it's my pleasure to have joined YPF, the largest and leading energy company in Argentina. I'm also here today with Guillermo Nielsen, Chairman of the Board, Sergio Affronti, CEO of YPF, and Alejandro Leo, CFO of the company. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to our cautionary statement on slide two. Please take into consideration that our remarks today and answers to your questions may include forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from the expectations contemplated by these remarks. Also, note that the exchange rate used in calculations to reach our main financial figures in dollar terms. Our financial figures are stated in accordance with IFRS, but during the call, we might discuss some non-IFRS measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. I will now turn the call to Guillermo.

Thank you Santiago for your introduction. Welcome and thanks to all of you for joining this call today. Before entering into the specifics of the oil and gas sector in Argentina, where our company does most of its activities, let me start this introduction by saying that after six months of negotiations and following the exchange of numerous restructuring proposals from both sides, Argentina has reached an agreement with the three main bondholders groups of Wall Street to support the sovereign debt restructuring on August the 4th, avoiding a potential default. Creditors will have until August the 24th to adhere to the proposal. We are optimistic about the outcome of these negotiations, as both bondholders and Argentinians would benefit from a successful agreement paving the way for large Argentine companies like YPF to return to international financial markets. That said, since our last presentation to the markets, we have seen how the COVID-19 pandemic has unevenly evolved. It has hit hard almost all geographies, including the U.S. and most Latin American countries, and in recent weeks, the news are showing new outbreaks in some European countries that had already left behind tight lockdown measures weeks earlier. As you may well be aware, Argentina has been since March in different stages of lockdown depending on the provinces and the acceleration of the spread of the virus. Lockdown was intended to flatten the curve of positive cases at a very early stage. Since then, cases have continued to increase, but in a slower pace than in other geographies and with a lower fatality rate, mainly concentrated in the city of Buenos Aires and the great Buenos Aires area. We're still highly exposed to the virus, but quarantine measures are becoming more flexible in some parts of the country. considering the impact on economic activity, and with the government efforts trying to be extremely precise and meticulous about permissions and procedures to contain the virus. In this scenario, we have seen how demand for our products has recovered from the initial stage of lockdowns without reaching yet the normal demand levels. As you all know, the Argentine economy has been hit by several economic crisis in recent decades. But this time around, demand for refined products has been hit hardest, even comparing with the impacts of the 2001-2002 crisis or the 1989 hyperinflation crisis. Even though we're still confident that as COVID-19 contagion curve starts to flatten and normal economic activity resumes, demand for our products will recover and production will go up. But, as we have seen in other parts of the world, the timing of the pandemic evolution cannot be predicted, so must we follow attentively how things develop. Before leaving the floor to the management team, which will be presenting YPF second quarter results, let me just say that both myself and the board of directors, we are satisfied with what has been done and what continues to be done to steer the company in the extremely difficult time the oil and gas industry is going through all over the world. We remain very optimistic of the vast energy potential that Argentina holds, including the incredible opportunity to become a net oil and gas exporter by fully developing the Vaca Morta shale play. Having said this, let me now switch to Sergio Affronti, YPF CEO, and Alejandro Leo, YPF CFO, who will go on with the presentation. Thank you very much.