Oil Companies Warned Off Investing in Argentina
The government abrogates contracts, steals companies and fails to pay its bills
Argentina's renationalized oil company YPF has been courting foreign investors to tap shale gas and crude reserves that could rank as the world's third largest, but U.S. companies would be wise to shy away from the offers, energy experts advised today.
There are just too many risks to investing in Argentina, said Bud Weinstein, associate director of Southern Methodist University's Maguire Energy Institute and University of Houston petroleum engineering professor Michael Economides.
Energy companies looking to make deals with YPF "need to make sure before going in that they have some very ironclad contracts that guarantee them payments or at least a rate of return," Weinstein said. "In recent years, Argentina has abrogated contracts, refused to abide by (WTO judgments) and also failed to honor more than 100 court judgments in the United States demanding payment."
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?