What was Argentine president Cristina Fernández thinking? Her government’s renationalisation of 51 per cent of local oil company YPF by expropriation is bad for Argentina and a shocker for Spanish oil group Repsol, which could lose nearly all of its 57 per cent stake. Buenos Aires claims that YPF was not investing enough. That, and the progressive withdrawal of YPF licences, smacks of efforts to depress its share price, down 35 per cent this year – not that there is talk of Buenos Aires paying for the stake. Nor is the problem with Repsol: it lies with Ms Fernández’s populist energy policy of keeping domestic prices low, forcing YPF to import refined products and gas and sell them at a loss.
阿根廷總統克里斯蒂娜?費爾南德斯(Cristina Fernández)到底是怎么想的？阿根廷政府把當地石油公司YPF 51%的股權征收為國有，這對阿根廷并無好處，對西班牙石油集團雷普索爾(Repsol)來說則是個驚天霹靂。該集團將失去其所持有的57%股權的絕大部分。阿根廷方面聲稱，YPF沒有進行足夠的投資。實施國有化并逐步收回YPF牌照，似乎意在打壓該公司的股價（今年已下跌了35%），而并非明面上所說的阿根廷政府打算出錢購買。問題也不在雷普索爾這一邊，而是在于費爾南德斯的民粹主義能源政策——將國內價格保持在低水平，迫使YPF進口成品油和天然氣，之后再虧本銷售。