MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chevron-YPF partnership splits the Argentina/Ecuador ‘progressive’ entente

Ecuador has a 19bn alleged contamination demand on Chevron which the US company describes the process as a ‘fraud’

US petroleum giant Chevron has warned that the continuing legal battle with Ecuador's government over pollution charges could put in jeopardy the company's partnership with YPF to exploit the Vaca Muerta shale reserves in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina.

The multinational corporation, based in Mountain View, California, released a statement under the title “The truth about the fraud against Chevron in Ecuador”, in which they attempted to cast doubt on the 2011 trial which obliged the company to pay 19bn dollars for contaminating the Amazon rainforest.

“A group of Ecuadorian and North American layers financed by British vulture funds obtained in 2011 a ruling against Chevron Corporation, in a process plagued with fraud, corruption, extortion and use of false evidence against the company,” the missive released on Tuesday reads.

“That illegitimate Ecuadorian sentence threatens to make its effects resonate in Argentina, impacting subsidiary companies of Chevron who have nothing to do with the Ecuadorian judicial fraud.”

Alongside the opening statement, Chevron released a list of defences explaining their complaints about the judicial process and its resulting impact on the company image.

YPF a majority stake of which was seized by the Argentine government from Spain’s Repsol in May 2012, signed last July a surprisingly generous agreement with Chevron to explore and exploit shale resources in Vaca Muerta.

Argentina which only five years ago was self sufficient in oil and gas has become a net importer because of the Argentine government policy of keeping fuel and oil well crude prices frozen, thus dilapidating reserves and discouraging any new exploration.

Oil industry was surprised by the extraordinary benefits and conditions granted to Chevron (for the promise of investing over a billion dollars) by the Cristina Fernandez administration which represents a 180 degree change in government policy towards new investments in the industry.