The expropriation of YPF in historical perspective: limits of state power intervention in Argentina, 1989–2015

Abstract

Law No. 26,471 of Soberanía Hidrocarburífera (Hydrocarbons Law), en- acted on 3 May 2012, represented a transcendental change of the dominant conception in Argentina regarding the exploitation of natural resources in general, and oil and gas in particular. is law declared both the achievement of internal energy supply as well as the activities regarding exploitation and industrialization of hydrocarbons in various segments of the industry to be of national public interest, in order to ensure economic development with social equity. In this context, hydrocarbons became a strategic resource for the country?s productive activities. They had been regarded as a simple exportable commodity uncoupled from the dynamics of local production (which were governed by the logic of the international market). In this sense, the law ordered the expropriation of 51 per cent of the assets of YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales), the continent?s first state oil company and one of Argentina?s most important businesses for seventy years. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze YPF from its privatization in 1989 until its renationalization in 2012. It analyzes national particularities to explain why YPF was completely privatized in the 1990s (contrary to the regional experience in Mexico, Venezuela, and Brazil), and how, only twenty years later, the same company came back under a process of expropriation and state control, a reversal that had vast popular and parliamentary support. In this regard, this chapter analyzes the consequences of deregulation and financial liberalization of the oil industry from the acquisition of YPF by the Spanish multinational Repsol in 1999, until its nationalization in 2012.