The recent decision by President Cristina Fernandez to seize a majority stake in YPF from Spain’s Repsol has the approval of 62% of Argentines, while 23% disagree according to a public opinion poll from Poliarquía published in the Sunday edition of La Nacion.
The Argentine government decision to nationalize Spain’s Repsol owned YPF will be discussed in June in Los Cabos, Mexico, during the G-20 summit.
The British government, in a move designed to ease concern among the investment community about the Argentine legal threats, has written to some 15 banks and oil exploration companies operating in the region, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Vice president Danilo Astori currently on a business trip to Spain described Uruguay as an “attractive and safe” country to invest given its macroeconomic solidness, strength of its institutions and stimuli for investors, both domestic and from overseas.
The European parliament ‘deplored’ the Argentine government decision to expropriate a majority control in the YPF hydrocarbons corporation - which is owned by Spanish energy company Repsol- and called for the suspension of Argentina's tariff concessions under Europe's so-called generalised system of preferences (GSP). In a resolution, the House also urges Argentina to ”return to the path of dialogue and negotiation”.
Uruguay and Brazil agreed this week to jointly set up a 100MW wind farm in Uruguayan territory demanding an investment of 200 million dollars and which should become operational by 2013.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff following a meeting with an Argentine delegation from the energy sector ratified her country’s decision to “strengthen the investment and the presence of the oil company, Petrobras, in Argentina”.
Argentina managed a first point in the diplomatic dispute with Spain over the nationalization of YPF when the IMF decided to call the conflict a “bilateral affair” and “a decision of a sovereign nation”.
Petrobras and mining company Vale, the two biggest companies in Brazil, have signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue joint ventures in various areas, Petrobras said.
The government of President Cristina Fernandez is “not concerned” about the escalade of international criticism following the announced nationalization of the oil company YPF, and rules “thinking in Argentina not in Spain or the US”, said two cabinet members.