The relationship between the Argentine Government and the Spanish Repsol-YPF oil company continues to strain in spite of recent announcements and contacts to try and cool the situation.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is scheduled to travel to Chile next week to meet with her peer Sebastian Piñera and the Falklands issue expected to outstand in the bilateral agenda, particularly air links with the Islands.
Premier Wen Jiabao said China would strengthen its military's capabilities to win “local wars under information-age conditions”, even as the government announced a steep 11.5% rise in domestic security spending to ensure stability ahead of a leadership transition.
Spain and Argentina formed a working group to resolve their “differences” over YPF, the Argentine oil company majority-owned by Madrid-based Repsol-YPF, Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez is preparing the legal framework to take control of Spain’s Repsol-YPF subsidiary in Argentina which it has accused of not investing sufficiently and has triggered a round of discussions with the Spanish corporation’s top official, reports the Buenos Aires media.
Brazil is eager to finalize a free trade agreement between the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and the Mercosur bloc but believes the petrochemicals sector will be exempted until further study after the signing, said Brazilian Trade and Industry Minister Fernando Pimentel.
Foreign Affairs minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo assured that the Spanish government “is doing what must be done” to defend the interests of Spanish companies in Argentina, but has avoided releasing details.
Spain's Repsol and China's Sinopec have made an oil discovery offshore Brazil that could be one of the biggest so far in the area and that boosted confidence that across in Africa, Angola's deepwater reserves may be abundant too.
US and Mexico have agreed to work together to develop deep-water oil and gas fields that straddle their maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico. The deal was signed at a meeting of the G20 group of industrial and developing countries in Los Cabos, Mexico.
The Falkland Islands Director of Minerals Stephen Luxton said that estimates published last week in the UK, of revenue of 180 billion dollars for the Falklands Government from oil production are only a “best case” scenario since in spite of great potential, the only true test is the drill bit.