Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fracking a vaca muerta

Oh, what a tangled web they weave (in Argentina) when they practice to deceive investors, with ploys J.R. Ewing could only dream of;
Spanish oil company Repsol asked the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) to take provisional measures to prevent YPF state-owned oil company to execute the deal it sealed with Chevron last year to explore for unconventional hydrocarbons in the Vaca Muerta shale formation.
Exports of steaks, not being the only dead cows Argentina specializes in. We hope Chevron's shareholders appreciate the risks they're taking here, since Repsol's owners had their entire investment in these same fields nationalized by an Argentine government desperate for foreign currency--Argentina has controls on foreign exchange, with the official rate for pesos to the US dollar being about 5-1/2 to 1, while the black market offers over 8 to 1.

So, if there are assets that can be sold for dollars, even if they don't belong to you, you can sell them to the next fool.  If your name is President Cristina Kirchner, that is.

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