RECENT TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE ARGENTINE OIL INDUSTRY: THE YPF CASE, 1989-2012

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to analyze the path of the state oil company YPF, from privatization to its expropriation (1989-2012). In this process, it has a special emphasis on the identification and analysis of national peculiarities that explain why in the ‘90s YPF, one of the nation’s premier companies in history, was fully privatized (counter to the regional experience in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil); and how, just twenty years later, the same company was again in state control, with an expropriation which was widely popular and parliamentary support. It also reviews the main consequences of deregulation and the opening in the Argentine oil sector, especially in the performance of --- since acquired all shares of YPF in 1999, to explain this path.