
YPF's oil and natural gas production rose in 2014 for the second year running, Argentina's state-run energy company said on Thursday. Oil production rose 8.7% last year, while gas output was up 12.5%, YPF said, although the company did not publish annual output volume.

The collapse of the oil price has created losers and winners, and like every major movement in a commodity sector, the trick for investors is figuring out which side of the trade to be on.The most obvious victim of the slide in Brent and WTI prices over the last 6 months has been the major oil producers. Holders of these equities have seen price slides up to 33%.

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is poised to become the largest shareholder in the New York Times Co. after already almost doubling his money from an investment that helped the newspaper get through the financial crisis.

UK hydrocarbons producer Premier Oil with strong interests in the Falklands expects to book a 300 million dollars impairment charge due to the plunge in oil prices and plans to cut jobs and investment by 40% compared to 2014, to rein in costs, it said on Wednesday.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will be travelling to Beijing next month, reciprocating a visit from her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last July, it was officially announced by chief of staff Jorge Capitanich. The meeting was anticipated last Friday in a meeting of the two countries foreign ministers on the sidelines of the CELAC/China ministerial forum held last week in Beijing.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has instructed a budget cut which affects 39 ministries, reducing their funds by a third, in order to save a figure estimated at 703 million dollars per month.

Argentina and China entered a new phase of their relationship in July last year after upgrading it to a “comprehensive strategic association” and signing a battery of agreements, which include a 4.7 billion investment in hydroelectric dams, 2.09 billion in the renovation of the rail system and an 11 billion currency swap.

Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday 250 billion dollars in investment in Latin America over the next five years as part of a drive to boost resource-hungry China’s influence in the region.

The importance of forging closer strategic ties between China and Latin America was underlined by Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in her speech to the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean two-day ministerial forum that took place in Beijing.

The Panama Canal Board of Directors this week formally approved the development and construction of a transshipment port in Panama’s Corozal region. Upon completion, the port will have the capacity to handle more than five million TEUs within a 120-hectare area at the Canal’s entrance to the Pacific. The project is now awaiting the final step for approval from Panama’s National Assembly.