YPF Eyes Sale of Lithium Unit as Focus Narrows on Shale Ramp-Up

Argentine state-run oil company YPF SA is considering a sale of its lithium unit as part of a sweeping divestment strategy to streamline investments into the heralded Vaca Muerta shale patch.

Executives are mulling an exit from YPF Litio, said a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private. The company has been reviewing business holdings that fall outside YPF’s traditional sphere of drilling for oil and gas and refining crude.

A sale of the unit would come just three years after it was created as YPF — and oil companies the ...