Bloomberg: Argentina’s YPF Seizure Jeopardizes Vaca Muerta Funds, IEA Says

Argentina’s seizure of YPF SA, the country’s biggest oil producer, may deter investment in the Vaca Muerta field that contains more than 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent, the International Energy Agency said.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner took a 51 percent stake in YPF from Spain’s Repsol YPF SA and this week named Miguel Galuccio, formerly of Schlumberger Ltd., to head the company. YPF holds a 40 percent interest in the 30,000-square- kilometer (7.4 million-acre) field that holds shale oil and gas.

“The government takeover clouds the investment climate for international companies that might otherwise have been attracted to unconventional resources in the Vaca Muerta and other plays,” the IEA said today in a report. “Absent foreign- investor guarantees of contract sanctity, the move could deepen Argentina’s product import needs in the short and medium term.”

Fernandez accused Madrid-based Repsol of failing to invest enough in YPF to bolster output, forcing Argentina to double fuel imports to $9.4 billion last year. To reverse the decline in production, YPF is seeking partners to help it tap the country’s extensive shale oil and gas reserves.  MORE