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.
阿根廷总统克里斯蒂娜•费尔南德斯(Cristina Fernández)到底是怎么想的？阿根廷政府把当地石油公司YPF 51%的股权征收为国有，这对阿根廷并无好处，对西班牙石油集团雷普索尔(Repsol)来说则是个惊天霹雳。该集团将失去其所持有的57%股权的绝大部分。阿根廷方面声称，YPF没有进行足够的投资。实施国有化并逐步收回YPF牌照，似乎意在打压该公司的股价（今年已下跌了35%），而并非明面上所说的阿根廷政府打算出钱购买。问题也不在雷普索尔这一边，而是在于费尔南德斯的民粹主义能源政策——将国内价格保持在低水平，迫使YPF进口成品油和天然气，之后再亏本销售。