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Major oil company sale collapses after Argentina impones forex controls

Monday, November 7th 2011 - 05:54 UTC
Full article 29 comments

China’s Cnooc Ltd.'s deal to buy BP Plc's 7.1 billion dollars stake in Argentine crude producer Pan American Energy LLC collapsed, ten days after Argentina's president ordered oil companies to repatriate export revenue. Read full article

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  • lsolde

    Well l agree with her as regards foreign agricultural land ownership.
    l wouldn't allow foreigners to get control of my country's food supplies either.
    Just another reason why we don't want you Argentines here.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 09:26 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jorge ferreiro

    From the comment above it appears that Argentines don't believe in freedom. The die is cast. Anyone with assets in Argentina will likely lose them. CFK will confiscate and steal anything that she can to give to her Peronist cronies. Perhaps the Argentine people need to read about economic freedom. It would actually make their country prosperous. Argentina is a textbook case of how a country can commit economic suicide repeatedly.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 11:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Zool

    You have to love CFK, BP wanted to sell & China wanted to buy but Argentine regulatory approvals didn't materialize in time. I thought China was Argentina's new best friend, Cant see them being happy their largest energy accusation has just walked out the door after being held up by CFK's government.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 12:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Viscount Falkland

    accelerating capital flight from South America's second-biggest economy.............Who would have believed it ? They must all be mad .....except for CFK..... who understands these matters .Oh Yes !

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 12:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • JB

    People, here there is a serious analysis of what happened

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/07/us-bp-idUSTRE7A51ED20111107

    Forex controls??? Sometimes mercopress just writes poor articles.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 01:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    @3 “accusation”. Did you mean “acquisition”?

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 04:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • atk357

    CFK is a very good example of what “not to do” in international business. What is she thinking?

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 04:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Beef

    CFK is only interested in her herself. Problem is that she has made the Chinese lose face and this is a no no in Chinese culture and business.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 06:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Marcos Alejandro

    Destroys likelihood of British Petroleum in Malvinas.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/06/bp-pan-american-energy-sell-off-blocked

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 06:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    BP (a multinational company) wants to sell to Cnooc (a Chinese foreign company) their bit of the Argentinian firm Pan American. The deal fails because CFK wants foreign companies to keep in Argentina profits, and future profits, from energy and mining earned in Argentina. The foreign firms in Argentina were taking their money out of the country because the high inflation rate was making money kept in Argentina pretty worthless; and because much of their core business needing investment is overseas.

    Cnooc has a national/foreign ‘stalking-horse’ company called Bridas Corp (50% Cnooc, 50% private Argentinian=Bulgheroni family).
    Bridas owns 40% of Pan American and wanted the rest via the BP sale, but the Argentinian anti-trust laws got in the way. Bridas said that BP behaved badly during the sale; BP will return their deposit.
    For BP, this is a part of the post-Gulf of Mexico re-focusing of business. For Cnooc, this would have been one further economic take-over in/of South America.
    . . . . . . .
    But, in practice, the worth of Pan American was downgraded to ‘Junk’ status because of CFK’s action to stop export of profits. Both parties denied that this had anything to do with the collapse of the deal. . . . . yeah.

    CFK has shot the deal – and many similar to it. Part or full nationalisation is the order of the day in Argentina.

    Foreign companies will have to accept that there will be little (and reducing) profit to be made in Argentina, and little scope for shareholder returns on their capital so deployed.
    Foreign companies will sensibly relocate to eg. Brasil.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 06:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ron

    http://www.lanacion.com.ar//1421043-bridas-cancelo-la-compra-del-60-de-pae?utm_source=n_tis_nota1&utm_medium=titularS&utm_campaign=NLEco

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 06:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Beef

    There will be little incentive for foreign investment in Argentina. At least it will be a place for cheap labour though.

    Marcos - if BP decide to invest in the FI then that is their business and in reality there is nothing Argentina can do. If BP own part of the Pan American then what exactly could Argentina do, stop Pan American producing oil? That wouldn't be too popular with Argentine consumers. I think it is more likely Shell would decide to get invovled.

    Quoting the Guardian again. You are a bit useless.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 08:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Kiwisarg

    1 lsolde , you say ....l wouldn't allow foreigners to get control of my country's food supplies either. The Malvinas islands is not a country. It is a province as part of Tierra de Fuego, Argentina, please take care about this, Ok?

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 09:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • stick up your junta

    @13

    Feel better for that,you keep on dreaming no wet ones mind Ok?

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 10:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Beef

    Kiwi - who says? Certainly not the UN.

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 10:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • O gara

    The reason for the new law can be seen in the massive oil and gas find in Neuquen by Repsol-YPF mixed Spanish-Argentine company 927 million barrels of oil the biggest in the companies history and another massive boost for the country.There are massive explorations going on all over the country and CFK has no intention of letting foreign multinationals running off with the loot

    Nov 07th, 2011 - 11:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Marcos Alejandro

    BP who?

    “The find has the potential to position Argentina among the world's leading producers of shale oil, or unconventional oil extracted from tight sands or shale rock formations”

    http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111107-712759.html

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 03:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jerry

    Do not forget; don´t count your chickens before they hatch. Shale oil deposits have never in history proved productive for a profit in any country in the world.

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 04:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Marcos Alejandro

    18 jerry We'll see.

    “Similar discoveries in the U.S. have dramatically reversed fortunes in the country's oil and gas industry, which only a decade ago was widely expected to be in irreversible decline”

    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ypf-finds-927-mln-barrels-of-argentina-shale-oil-2011-11-07

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 05:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Beef

    Marcos - what have you got against BP? I imagine you want Pan American to do well so by default want BP to do well.

    Talking about wells. The drill bit keeps turning!

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 07:14 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • lsolde

    @13Kiwi's bottom,
    Keep dreaming,deluded malvinista.

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 09:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Malvinero1

    Well l agree with her as regards foreign agricultural land ownership.
    l wouldn't allow foreigners to get control of my country's food supplies either.
    Just another reason why we don't want you Argentines here.
    What food supply Isolde?Malvinas imports a lot of food....

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 12:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • stick up your junta

    imports a lot of food

    and sells a lot of fishing licences :-)))))

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 01:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jerry

    19 - Read a litle more about the USGS report; the GAS recovery appears that it may be viable, but not oil.

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 03:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    That is sad, jerry,
    a modicum of oil and gas may make for an Argentina with a better disposition vis a vis TFI.

    It may be just a matter of time, however. Deep water geological surveying should reveal some winnable reserves sometime; it's unlikely that Brasil and Uruguay will have 'pre/post salt' O&G but not Arg.

    It is a race.
    Find the reserves fast, weather the coming storm.
    Don't search fast enough, collapsed economy & collapsed country.

    Of course, once you have found it you need to be like Norway - value every drop, husband it, don't burn it off unnecessarily, and plan for the release into the market at the rate that suits the country's long-term (re-)development. The risk is that it is found, used up quickly, and the profits never reach the people in any meaningful sense.

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 04:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ed

    Well done Argentina .%

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 06:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Malvinero1

    imports a lot of food

    and sells a lot of fishing licences :-)))))
    And is a DISPUTED TERRITORY,according with the WORLD!
    Taking about the law

    Nov 08th, 2011 - 06:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • lsolde

    @27Malvinero1,
    l don't think its disputed territory at all. lt's OUR territory, NOT yours & l don't care what you think.
    We will do what we like with our territory & it's got absolutely NOTHING to do with you.
    So mind your own business.

    Nov 09th, 2011 - 10:16 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Dr Carrizal

    13 Eff off kiwisarg, you've got a nerve, nerd, and you're giving Kiwis a bad name! go back to Eketahuna, or is it Whykickamoocow? You wouldn't have been an artillery sergeant, or lance corporal in a past life, would you?

    Nov 10th, 2011 - 07:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0

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