YPF responds to the Argentine government on a new week of tensions
Argentina’s YPF oil company, controlled by the Spanish Repsol, the last statement of releases to try to stop the onslaught of the Argentine authorities in a week you could lose new operating licenses in the west.
The oil present his defense today to the government of the province of Mendoza and will do the same tomorrow, Tuesday, to the Neuquén provincial authorities confirmed to sources the company.
Both provinces will announce this week whether to withdraw licenses to the company in various areas of production for alleged lack of investment.
“We share the nation’s need for a change: not inverted, reversed. We need to invest,” said today the governor of Neuquén, Jorge Sapag, told local media.
The arguments of Mendoza and Neuquen are the same as used last week the governments of the Patagonian provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz, two of the largest oil companies in the country to withdraw licenses YPF in four wells producing about 7 percent of oil company in Argentina.
On this occasion, according to industry sources consulted by Efe, the areas in question in Mendoza and Neuquen not impact significantly on production, although the withdrawal of the permits would highly politically charged and would be part of the onslaught of the Government of Cristina Fernandez against the oil company.
In parallel, the sources said the company works in the response that will move the government in the YPF board meeting scheduled for later this week.
At the last board meeting, the State representative in the directory, Roberto Baratta, opposed the approval of the accounts of 2011 and demanded the creation of a pool of investments for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons.
“All the oil companies in the country, without distinction, must know that the Argentine government’s decision to maintain the competitiveness of the economy and return to self-supply of fuel. For that they must invest in exploration and exploitation. That’s all I need to know” said Finance Minister Hernan Lorenzino, in remarks published today by the newspaper Financial Field.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez, who had a close relationship with the Eskenazi family, owners of the Petersen group controlling 25.46 percent of YPF, began escalating last December against the oil company, accusing it of lack of investment.
For opposition Senator Maria Eugenia Estenssoro, the daughter of one of the presidents of YPF, the conflict is due to a “fight between partners,” as Fernandez and her husband and predecessor, the late Nestor Kirchner, had good relations with President Repsol, Antonio Brufau, as with Eskenazi.
The underlying problem, told Efe, is that Argentina is facing an energy crisis because “we are a country that was self-sufficient and now need to buy because they have not made the necessary investments, with YPF to the head, but has not been the single company. ”
“You have to force companies to invest,” he said Estenssoro, who considered that the government “is in an extreme situation because we lost self-sufficiency and energy imports increased 20 times since 2003.”
In his view, the nationalization of the company is not a viable solution because it “will not make Argentina regain self-sufficiency. There are other ways, such as forcing YPF and the rest of the oil companies to invest extraordinary change and energy policy” .
YPF, which Repsol has a 57.43% stake, is the largest hydrocarbon producer in Argentina, the largest taxpayer and one of the largest employers, with a staff of 13,500 workers.
According to the company in 2011 made record investments, mainly in exploration and production, 3,000 million dollars, 50% more than in 2010.
YPF has 32% of oil and 23% of the gas in Argentina, according to the Argentine Institute of Oil and Gas.
Category: Investing
