Argentine Vice President, in Washington, invited US oil companies to invest in YPF
Argentine Vice President Amado Boudou on Tuesday urged US companies to invest in YPF, the nationalized oil company that Argentina recently expropriated from Spain's Repsol.
“We are very optimistic in terms of what is coming for the Argentine economy in general and the hydrocarbons sector specifically” Boudou said at a Conference on the Americas at the US State Department in Washington.
Far from scaring off foreign investment because of the expropriation, the government of President Cristina Fernandez has set the framework for “excellent opportunities for those who want to invest in joint ventures and possibilities of joint work in the energy sector,” he said.
The Cristina Fernandez administration is gambling that the discovery in May 2011 of a giant oilfield in Argentina's Patagonia would be too tempting for foreign oil giants to ignore. YPF needs the know-how and the capital to fully exploit the oil fields in the south-western Nequen province, known as Vaca Muerta (Dead Cow), which according to official estimates holds 150 million barrels of oil.
YPF is “open to capital and the possibility of working together with public or private companies in Argentina or abroad,” Boudou said.
Last week the Argentine president signed a bill expropriating 51% of YPF stock from Repsol, its majority shareholder, sealing a measure that has roiled the country's trade ties with Europe.
Cristina Fernandez has argued that the move was justified because Argentina faces sharp rises in its bill for imported oil, and Repsol has failed to make agreed investments needed to expand domestic production.
In Madrid, a Repsol spokesman Tuesday said the company has warned its competitors that they will face legal action if they invest in YPF.
“The idea is to protect the assets that were confiscated in Argentina until the situation is resolved in a satisfactory way for the parties that are involved,” the spokesman said.
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Crowd: *silence*
Voice: “you're a c@ck”
Crowd: *clapping*
Superb!
The risk has clearly risen which will be factored into the price. I can't see how they will be tempted because there's no such thing as a cast iron guarantee when it comes to dealing with Argentina. If the cost/return looks too good to be true then it probably is.
If the Repsol business model wasn't good enough for Argentina then what company will accept one with even worse returns?
“Far from scaring off foreign investment because of the expropriation, the government of President Cristina Fernandez has set the framework for “excellent opportunities for those who want to invest in joint ventures and possibilities of joint work in the energy sector,” he said.”
In other words, we stole this company and we now realise that we don't have the capital to keep it running, let alone develop it further. Give us lots of money and we'll steal that too.
The Argentine government must honesty think that the rest of the world are completely gullible, like vast sectors of their own population.
I pwomise we'll make it worth your while and I'll scweam and scweam and scweam until I'm sthick if you don't!
(One for our Argentine friends to scratch their head over)
The political risk of having your investments stolen and the legal risk of being sued by REPSOL, and tarnished in the courts is not really worth the prospect of pulling shale oil out of the ground when it costs £60 a barrel to get it, and you have to sell it to the Arg government for £43.
It's basically a very very sh!t idea.
Options:
1. Invest with a company stealing, debt ridden, corrupt country?
2. Invest in FOGL, and see your profits rise.
I think the answer if simple enough, even an RG child of 5 could spot the winner here. There's a thought, Argies, get a child of 5 to answer that please, before you corrupt them into La Campoa malvinist shite.
Dear Mr. GreekYoghurt
Your comments about Vice-President Boudou are insulting and I demand that you formally apologize to our group. You compare us to the worst of the world, without morals or honesty. You also imply we can't be trusted. That's your opinion, but to compare Vice-President Boudou and the political Argentine government he's a part of to rats is an unforgivable slur against our race.
Shame on you! We demand an immediate apology.
The Society of Worldwide Rats
(Seeking dignity for our race.)
Any Seaside Wharf 1, The World
How dare you!!! You have the affront to call the Argentine goverment a Bunch of corrupt, self-serving,theiving, lying, Cheats who will drag the country into ruin, just to line their own pockets.....
Oh, hang on......... wait a minute..........
I call it 'bloody hilarious'.
First the malvinas/falklands conflict, second the ypf coup, third -? - to veil their financial desaster in arg. Boudou just has been exposed by La Nacion and Clarin - the special friends of the ck-gang - in washington by being settled with a RAT: Rats must be kicked out of G-20:
The Vice President was greeted by a protest by vulture funds and bondholders in the entry to the Inter-American Development Bank
(IADB).
****
“I am the rat of the G-20,” said the sign that, with an Argentine flag, was attached to an enormous inflatable rat placed in front of the entrance to the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank yesterday in Washington. When investors and diplomats invited to the welcoming reception of the Conference of the Council of the Americas began to arrive, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.****
Having just arrived from Buenos Aires, Vice President Amado Boudou – who today will be one of the invited speakers to the Conference – avoided the protest of the bondholders affected by the Argentine default by entering through a back door.****
This way he also avoided the giving out of a little plastic rat which said “Kick the rat out of the G-20”, an allusion to Argentina’s membership in the Group of 20, which includes developed and developing countries alike.***
*
Also circulating was an “explanatory” pamphlet that spoke of the
expropriation of YPF, the non-payment of ICSID decisions in favor of
companies that sued the Argentine government; of Judge Griesa; of the expulsion of Argentina from the Generalized System of Preferences, and the complaint presented by 40 countries over import barriers in Argentina.****
Hadn't you noticed your queen dresses like the Wicked Witch of the West every day?
Vous etes Violet Elizabeth Bott n'est pas?
Only the terminally indoctrinated or stupid couldn't see the Argentine's Vice Presidents trip for what it is. Desperately Seeking Money.
A lot of investors world-wide have been bitten by this viperous government and that old saying is applicable here, 'once bitten, twice shy.'
No one in their right mind would invest in Argentina whilst this bunch of crooks run the place.
Because at least half of what he has said is starting to come true. Also, I am looking forward to the element of disbelief that will follow.
Nestor is dead, he was the brains of this operation. Without him she is becoming more and more volatile and increasingly nationalistic. I can't support this woman when I see the mistakes she is making. One of the provinces where the family live can no longer issue debt and there are murmurings about public sector workers not getting paid (or just getting fobbed off with some worthless currency replacement)...they all work in the public sector.
Correctamundo
Oil companies with the ability might be interested in a massive shale find, but even Repsol wasn't massively interested in developing it because it costs so much to get the oil out of the ground in this state, then treat it, and then clean the water... and boy does it take a lot of water. Then you can only sell it at some ridiculously low price.
They basically want private investors in USA, who they've just shafted in Spain to stump up the U$25 Billion over the next decade to develop the field, only to have it then deliver tiny profits because they have caps on the sale price to subsidise internal consumption.
Furking nonsense.
....but common sense on Planet Argentina.
There are no legal guarantee for them to get their investment back.
Arg will have to look to private or state run oil companies that don't have to answer to shareholders.
I can't really think of 1 that has that much money to throw away on a Fascist Dictator's daily mood swings.
AHAHAHAHAHAH,how stupid are the unemployed brits hooligan here....
If anyone disagrees with the “crypto-fascist” - the son of the president runs a nationalist, socialist political mass movement that holds major flag-waving rallies and shoehorns it's senior members into high office. Yep, that's crypto-fascist alright (“crypto-” because of the soon to be abandoned figleaf of democracy).
Kleptocracy because the Kirchners have increased their personal wealth immensely since Nestor came to power - officially it's over 500%, but really only they know.
All the La Campora members will look back in old age and weep for how stupid they were and how they couldn't see where it was all heading.
Anyone want to take a bet on an armed para-military organisation based on La Campora being founded some time in the next 12-18 months? Probably to guard against “foreign agitators” and “capitalist reactionaries in the military”.
In the words of Dame Shirley Bassey “It's all just a little bit of history repeating”.
AHAHHAHAHAHA
Total already is investing..In the oil business nationalization has happened many times.They still invest....ignorant!
History doesn't repeat, it rhymes.
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