Argentina's Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Mauricio Macri's move to slash natural gas subsidies, a much-hated policy that has sent customers' bills soaring. The ruling is the hardest blow yet to the business-friendly president's move to eliminate electricity, gas and water subsidies which he says are bloating the deficit and sapping the struggling economy.
Argentina's government and leading oil companies hammered out a plan to gradually trim artificially high wellhead crude prices over the next three months in exchange for a temporary freeze on retail fuel prices.
The following article from The Economist points out that the Argentine Supreme Court in the next ten days has to decide on tariff rises for gas and electricity blocked by lower courts. And president Macri cannot afford to lose sine the price increases are a vital part of his plan to restore confidence in an economy undermined by years of reckless spending.
Brazil's Petrobras reported second-quarter profit that fell by nearly a third from a year earlier, missing expectations as oil prices fell and it took charges for layoffs and the impairment of a refinery. Petrobras said net income fell 30% to 370 million Reais (US$118 million) in the three months ended June 30 compared with a profit of 531 million Reais a year earlier.
The Falkland Islands government has made a public statement pointing out that the UK Government has been open and transparent with FIG about how it would like to improve the bilateral relationship with Argentina but ”has made it clear that this will not include negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.”
China’s role in Argentina’s foreign relations will be more balanced than during the Kirchner administrations, with a larger role played instead by the United States and European countries, the country’s ambassador to Beijing Diego Guelar said, claiming Chinese investment will have to be more competitive.
Argentina and Brazil commemorated on 18 July the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Material, ABACC, which was the result of the nuclear energy exclusive peaceful use accord, signed by then presidents Carlos Menem and Fernando Collor, in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Petrobras announced it plans to sell voting control of Petrobras Distribuidora SA after a bidding round for a minority stake in the fuels retailer failed to attract bids that met the state-controlled oil company's needs.
The Brazilian government has no plans to privatize state-run oil company Petrobras and is still deciding whether to sell its controlling share in several units to shore up its finances, the company's Chief Executive Officer Pedro Parente said in an interview with a local newspaper published on Monday.
Pan American Energy PAE, announced on Thursday investments of 1.4bn dollars in exploration and exploitation of conventional and non conventional hydrocarbons in the Argentine Patagonia provinces of Neuquen, Chubut and Tierra del Fuego.