MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
YPF dispute in calmer waters: Argentina yields and Repsol CEO calls for dialogue
The CEO from Spain’s main oil corporation Repsol, Antonio Brufau said that there should be no speeches or attempts to impose, but rather more dialogue, in direct reference to the ongoing conflict with the Argentine government over the possible takeover of the YPF branch. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesA lesson for the Argentinian government - this is what happens when you get delusions of grandeur and think you can do whatever you want without consequences *chuckle*. I wonder how many more humiliating retreats there'll be this year.
Apr 15th, 2012 - 11:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0While I do not agree with nationalisations and expropriations dictated unilaterally by populist governments, at the same time I have to say that the guys from Repsol had it coming, just as they have it coming in Mexico in anywhere else where they go around trying to squeeze profits with marginal, minimum investments.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 09:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0People resent it when they see a foreign company coming and taking everything without investing and creating more and better jobs. The spanish do not invest, they try to get the best deal for themselves and try to do business on top of other countries and peoples. They get what they pay for.
@3 Yes, that is business. Making profits for shareholders is their main concern. Like it or not, the Argentine government knew this when they decided to sell their oil rights to private companies. If it goes against their political ideals then they should have considered that and not suspended their morals when eagerly taking the money they obtained selling the rights.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 10:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0The Argentine governemnt is incapable of looking long-term or thinking through the consequences of their actions and decision making. This comes from having a mentally incapable, tyrannical leader with an uncontrollable temper. (She admitted this herself) Everyone agrees to her slightest whim because they don't want to anger her. They lie to her for fear of another outburst. And the Argentine people suffer thhe consequences.
A very bad weekend for El Think, he must be removing some of the nails he put in that coffin (again) and yet another back peddle from CFK and minions.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 01:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They are better at going backward then they are going forward. At some point they need to realize they should keep their mouths shut, what is the saying, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
They just can't help themselves though they LOVE to hear themselves bleat on and on about the injustice and how great they are...
Sad sad people.
Anyone with any savvy of the oil business in Argentina should know that the government, that has proven time and again that it can not manage the energy, does not allow the drillers and producers any kind of credit in a market that is controlled, to share any risk of new exploration or exploitation. CFK and crew prefer to sit back take the money and moan about the IOC's not doing enough. To drill expo wells offshore Argentina cost 4 million pesos a day. CFK expects energy companies to drill on good faith that they may some day recover these costs? That is why Brazil is kicking butts and taking names, they let IOC's in and let them make a profit.. Not so in Kirchnerlandia...
Apr 16th, 2012 - 02:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 05. Profit in Argentina is a dirty word don't you know that? If any business has some profit the gov't will change the tax code, put on price controls, raise their wages/expenses until there isn't any profit.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The only people allowed to leave with any $ is CFK and her minions.
So she has announced she is stealing YPF.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 03:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0La Nacion seems to have read this one wrong. To be fair, she probably came back home, having been humiliated, in a real temper tantrum and this is the result. Left flanking and bags of smoke as they say.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 04:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0She has decided to expropriate YPF.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 04:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0www.lanacion.com.ar/1465449-expectativa-por-un-anuncio-de-cristina-kirchner
So yes, she is stealing YPF. Should be fun to see how the Spaniards react.
Politics of polularity. I expect it will go down well in Argentina. I can see the headlines, “Argentinian oil for Argentinians.” In the end it will end up being a spectacular own goal. Who is going to invest in Argentina int he future, just too much of a risk.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 04:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nobody is stealing anything, Argentina, just like any other nation on earth, has always retained the right to expropriate strategic industries. Spain owns Repsol, Mexico Pemex, Norway, Brasil, Venezuela and many other nations in the world own oil companies the same.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 04:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Now when the spaniards invested in a foreign country´s strategic industry, they should have know that one of the risks, in Argentina, Brasil, England or anywhere else in the world, is that a country may decided to expropriate their oil industry at any time depending on their economic or sovereign interests.
@11. I really don't care much about the morality of the expropriation, I'm not that enamored with oil companies to be on the frontlines fighting for their rights (they can do that themselves); they do a lot of damage in the world by trampling on little people's rights and upon the impecunious amongst us, specially in poorer countries than Argentina.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 05:04 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The problem with this is CFK's timing. Argentina has many ongoing conflicts within Mercosur, within Latin America, with the EU, the US and other countries. To add another litigious front is quite borderline perfidious. An executive must be circumspect in foreign affairs, and pick and choose after much reflexion and perpending which battles to tackle and which others are for another day. This woman has decided in six months since October 11 to wage a 10-front war. My patience with her ha run out and it is time an investigation into her foreign policy is conducted.
Well done Cristina!!
Apr 16th, 2012 - 05:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Telefónica.. seguís vos!
Vamos a por todo!!
tobias:
Apr 16th, 2012 - 05:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You're so right. She has taken us down roads we should have left well alone, this is just the result of her temper from the Cumbre de las Américas. We eill have to pay the cost.
Based on her humiliation at the summit she obviously realises now that she will never, ever get her hands on any Falkland Islands oil so she had to steal from someone else.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 05:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 011 JoseAngeldeMonterrey
Apr 16th, 2012 - 08:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Spain does NOT own Repsol, the shareholders own Repsol and these are the people that the Mad Bitch is stealing from.
Please be advised that a lot of these sort of companies have shareholders who represent retirement investments - people like yourself perhaps. Do you think it is permissible to steal from these people.
Ah! I see the problem. You have no concept of theft because you are Argentino.
And today it is announced that she has presented a draft bill to congress to expropriate Repsol-YPF. Watch the fireworks now.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 08:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Isn't it ironic that at the same time we're remembering the sinking of the titanic, Argentina goes ahead and slams into a metaphorical iceberg.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 08:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is the best government we have ever had in Argentina!
Apr 16th, 2012 - 09:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0and this is just the beggining..! Well done Cristina!
Telefonica, you are next..!
19. That is true as long as you like your military weak with jets dropping out of the air, your passenger jets on the verge of not being able to fly internationally because they are unsafe, not being able to buy U$ to travel, the highest inflation in the world, a continually deprecating currency, crime way up in the last 8 years...ugh too much to mention.
Apr 16th, 2012 - 09:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes you are living in Paradise and it will only get better!! Soon enough you may have the living standards of Bolivia or if you are lucky Paraguay.
16 ChrisR
Apr 17th, 2012 - 12:21 am - Link - Report abuse 0I am not from Argentina, I am from Mexico. I understand about pension funds and believe, that has absolutely nothing to do with what is happening with Repsol-YPF in Argentina.
Repsol was created out of the ashes of the Instituto Nacional de Hidrocarburos in an effort from the Spanish government to create a national champion in the oil and energy industry. It may not belong to the state, but it is nevertheless protected with nationalism by Spain and they will never allow any foreign company to take over their shares. Mexico´s PEMEX was invited to join Repsol when it was created decades ago but only to hold a minority position, recently PEMEX tried to increase its stakes and it caught hell from the Spanish government.
Now there are thousands of companies in Mexico from the US, Germany, Holland, England, Japan and many other countries, our economy is wide open and they are present in the banking industry, energy sectors, telecommunications, etc. and nobody thinks about asking them to leave. Many American, German, Brittish and Frech corporations invest a lot, pay well to their workers, build schools and roads and contribute to the local communities where they operate. They make a lot profits of course, but they also seek to integrate and to add value to their presence in the country.
We had some spanish corporations investing in Mexico, they arrived later in the 90s, but I am sad to say they did not come with the spirit of integration and contribution as companies from other countries, they came and charged exorbitant prices. Bought local businesses only to close them down and lay off people. They are not as respected by the locals, they act as chinese firms, desperately seeking profits to take back home at all costs.
@18 - A press reporter in Buenos Aires said of the YPF incident “This is Malvinas 2”
Apr 17th, 2012 - 02:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0He's right. It's Malvinas 2 in the sense that it will end with a humiliating conclusion on the Argentinian side.
@21 It makes BP sound awesome.
Apr 17th, 2012 - 06:46 am - Link - Report abuse 021 JoseAngeldeMonterrey
Apr 17th, 2012 - 11:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0We were discussing Argentina and Repsol.
Thank you for the run-down on Mexico. I nearly went to live there instead of Uruguay but was put off by the drug gang warfare problem.
Yes, I know it is not everywhere: for now but it is, regrettably, spreading to other areas.
Shame really as there are some lovely places in Mexico.
#3 But it wasn't this government that sold up, it was Menem, and because Argentina is a democracy the government has since changed and the people have elected the biggest critic of Menem's privatisations (Cristina) as President. I can see why big business doesn't really like democracy!
Apr 17th, 2012 - 12:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#7 Great news, and just when I was getting used to a possible tactical retreat =)
#4 You were saying? =)
#19 Welcome to the boards =)
A lesson for the Argentinian government - this is what happens when you get delusions of grandeur and think you can do whatever you want without consequences *chuckle*. I wonder how many more humiliating retreats there'll be this year.
Apr 17th, 2012 - 09:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0AHAHHAAHHAHAHHAHA
Who writes!
brittain,the pinacle of freedom supression,imperial grandeur.
What a bunch of NUTS the brits!!
uk is FINISHED !! Taht is the reality!
to ElaineB #3: Well said! Except for the name and a few other changes...the description fits that of Adolf Hitler!
Apr 20th, 2012 - 06:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Where is the CIA? The CIA is like cops, ...when you need one..there is no one in sight!
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