MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile’s Enap, a partner of Repsol, “so we are also involved in the YPF dispute”

Chadwick revealed that President Piñera addressed the issue during the recent summit in Colombia.

The Chilean government reacted with concern at the announcement by Argentina of a bill to expropriate 51% of the oil company YPF from Spain’s Repsol, since this will have a direct impact for Chile, said on Monday evening the Executive Secretary General Andres Chadwick.

Chile’s government owned oil and gas corporation Enap has an association and operational agreement with Spain’s Repsol plus sharing some of the YPF areas in Argentina, which means that if the Argentine congress finally approves the expropriation, Chile will also be involved.

“President Sebastián Piñera in the last summit when the situation was made public as well as what could happen, and all the controversy with Spain, yes he underlined that Chile was also involved in the dispute because it so happens that Repsol has a subsidiary which is associated to Enap, and obviously this will affect us”, said Chadwick.

Therefore, “the president will refer to the issue to see what the path to follow is or Chile’s position on the situation, once we have all the background and current info from the Foreign Affairs ministry referred to the extent of the draft bill that the Argentine president has sent to Congress”, added Piñera spokesperson.

Chadwick said Piñera was following the issue closely and is “obviously very much aware of its importance and will have to consult with the Foreign ministry to see where we go from here”.

Lawmaker Patricio Melero from the ruling coalition said that Argentina’s decision sends a very negative signal “which takes us back to the seventies and quite irrational from the point of view of generating legal certainties for foreign investment and for property rights, even more when Chile is a significant trade partner of Argentina”.

“These kinds of signals only generate confusion, disorientation and uncertainties. It’s hard to understand and we must address it in all its magnitude, but it is clearly running opposite our times”, added Melero.