MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

YPF will no longer contract British-flagged vessels for the transport of oil

Protestors burn a Union Jack in front of the YPF main offices

A small group of protesters burned a British flag Monday outside the headquarters of Argentina's oil company in Buenos Aires, saying YPF SA should stop using tankers that fly flags from the British Commonwealth.

Before it was expropriated from Spain's Repsol oil company, YPF used the Stela Polaris, which flies a Bermudan flag, to carry oil from Patagonian ports.

Liliana Fadul, a Lower House member representing Tierra del Fuego province that nominally includes the Falklands and other South Atlantic Islands, says YPF is now violating regulations designed to thwart offshore oil and gas exploration in contested waters around the Falkland Islands.

The protest was organized by Quebracho, a radical group involved in a series of anti-British rallies during this year's 30th anniversary of Argentina's 74-day occupation of the Islands following on the invasion of 2 April 1982.

A veteran from the 1982 war burned a replica of the British Union Jack and joined other protesters in presenting demands to YPF officials.

In response, the company said it has no plans to continue using British-flagged ships to transport its energy.

“YPF only made an exception this one time, buying from a British ship to guarantee the supply of oil and gas in Tierra del Fuego ahead of the coming winter” the nos nationalized YPF said in a statement.