MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina again warns Repsol-YPF as provinces terminate production concessions

The main goal is energy self sufficiency, said Minister Randazzo

Amidst raising tensions between the Argentine government and Spain’s Repsol-YPF oil company, Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo warned on Tuesday that the administration led by President Cristina Fernández will take “all necessary measures to guarantee the country's energy self-supply”.

In radio conversations the official remarked that Argentina's main goal ”is to be self sufficient in terms of energy supply, thus all government measures in the topic will be aimed at achieving that goal” said Randazzo.

The minister’s comments came after Monday’s decision of the government’s of Salta and Mendoza provinces to terminate contracts of exploitation of different oil wells that Repsol-YPF handles in those provinces and a similar action from another province this week.

According to the media from the Patagonian province of Rio Negro, the local government is ready to announce on Wednesday the termination of three of five concessions from YPF. As with all the other Argentine provinces the argument has been that the oil company “did not comply with its production targets”.

Likewise in Tierra del Fuego Hydrocarbons secretary Omar Nogar has given YPF fifteen days to report on the production of its off-shore Lobo concession which “could be cancelled”.
 

In a clear tackle to oil companies, which according to the Argentine government are not investing enough which translates into a lack of energy supply that have led in recent years to a increasing demand of imported gas and oil, Randazzo reiterated the government’s charge against Repsol-YPF.

“It can’t be possible to have an energy trade deficit of 9 billion dollars like we currently have. This is why we want all oil companies to increase their investments within the country.”