MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
German oil company ignores YPF seizure and keeps expanding activities in Argentina
Wintershall Energia, which belongs to BASF, and has been pumping gas since 2004 Germany's Wintershall, the oil and gas arm of chemicals group BASF, said on Monday it was unperturbed by the enforced nationalisation of Argentine oil company YPF, having just been awarded another oil and gas licence there.
A spokesman for the Kassel-based company said there was no indication that Argentina had plans to seize control of other companies besides the majority YPF stake held by Spain's Repsol in mid-April.
“We therefore do not expect any impact on our Wintershall business in Argentina,” the spokesman said.
The move, which rattled international investors, has prompted Repsol to cancel its contract to supply Argentina with liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Wintershall said it had been awarded a new exploration permit for gas and oil in the Ranquil Norte area of Argentina, where it says it is the fourth-biggest gas producer.
The permit was obtained by Wintershall Energia, the local subsidiary of the Kassel-based company, for 50% of a participating interest as operator, and with the local unit of France's Total - Total Austral - holding the remaining 50% as a partner, it said on Monday.
The area is in the southernmost region of Mendoza province and covers 2.232 square km. The permit follows one granted to the company in March for the adjacent area Cuenca Neuqina V.
Wintershall has been present in the area since 2004, performing field and laboratory work, including geological mapping and modelling, geochemical analysis as well as 2-D seismic reprocessing and interpretation.
”These evaluations indicate that the Ranquil Norte Block has potential to explore and develop conventional and unconventional reservoirs (shale gas and shale oil),” the press release said.
Wintershall already has stakes in 15 Argentine oil and gas fields. It produces 27 million cubic meters of oil equivalent, mostly gas, per annum in Argentina.
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Read all commentsWorth repeating here.....:
May 22nd, 2012 - 03:32 am 0Argentina’s Critics Get it Wrong…………….. Again
The Argentine government’s decision to re-nationalize its formerly state-owned oil and gas company, YPF, has been greeted with howls of outrage, threats, forecasts of rage and ruin, and a rude bit of name-calling in the international press.
We have heard all this before. When the Argentine government defaulted on its debt at the end of 2001, then devalued its currency a few weeks later, it was all gloom and doom in the media. The devaluation would cause inflation to spin out of control, the country would face balance of payments crises from not being able to borrow, the economy would spiral downward into deeper recession.
Nine years later, Argentina’s real GDP has grown by about 90 percent, the fastest in the hemisphere. Employment is at record levels, and both poverty and extreme poverty have been reduced by two-thirds. Social spending, adjusted for inflation, has nearly tripled
www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/argentinas-critics-get-it-wrong-again
A nice set of Data.....:
www.cepr.net/documents/publications/argentina-success-2011-10.pdf
So we can expect Argentina to start paying some of its debts? Some of its creditors are getting increasingly unhappy: http://atfa.org/cgi-data/press/files/58.shtml
May 22nd, 2012 - 06:19 am 0You would 'think' if this was the case the normally quite vocal propaganda department of the RG government would be telling people about this??? your one article hardly constitutes a sound case.
May 22nd, 2012 - 11:39 am 0If so amazing and vibrant how come inflation is 25% plus and a ban is in place from moving cash reserves out of the country??? doesnt add up does it.
Unable to pay deafaulted loans
Sky high inflation
Ban on movement of money
Raiding of the central bank reserves
must be a new and radical economic model. Maybe the Reichministry could make a propaganda film on the subject.
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