Vaca Muerta deal with Chevron Wednesday, December 31, 2014 Judge: YPF must disclose contract

Vaca Muerta deal with Chevron

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Judge: YPF must disclose contract

Federal Judge María José Sar-miento ordered state-controlled energy firm YPF yesterday to fully disclose details of its contract with US oil major Chevron sought by Radical (UCR) party lawmaker Manuel Garrido amid allegations of secret clauses in the agreement.

The Judge gave YPF 10 judicial working days to provide legislator Garrido with the information he requested, the judiciary’s internal news agency said.

YPF said it would appeal the ruling and that it met all obligations required of a company listed in Buenos Aires and New York.

“Everything done by YPF is within the law,” YPF said in a statement, where it added that a similar ruling had already been struck down at the Appeals’ Court where the case will now be taken, after Senator Rubén Giustiniani made demands equivalent to Garrido’s.

Chevron signed a deal in 2013 to explore the barely tapped Vaca Muerta shale formation — one of the world’ largest shale oil and gas formations —, an accord that marked the largest foreign investment in Argentina’s energy sector since the government nationalized Repsol’s controlling stake in YPF in 2012.

Opposition legislators have said they believe the secret clauses hand concessions to Chevron that undermine national interests.

Argentina passed a new law in October offering sweeteners to explorers to attract the estimated US$200 billion needed to exploit the non-conventional resource.

To date, Chevron and YPF have announced joint investments totaling US$2.8 billion, but that figure could reach as much as US$15 billion under the terms of the accord.

— Herald with Reuters