Argentina pays $5bn to Repsol for YPF seizure

Argentina Thursday transferred nearly $5.4 million worth of bonds to Spanish energy giant Repsol as compensation for seizing control of its former subsidiary YPF two years earlier, Buenos Aires said. Argentina "has delivered the number of Initial Public Securities set forward in the agreement" signed with Repsol in February, said the statement from the Economy Ministry. It added that Respol had, in response, withdrawn all legal and administrative "actions from the company, its affiliates, and its mediators, in relation to the expropriation and related matters." Repsol had said a day earlier it had sold most of its remaining 12-percent stake in YPF, holding on to just 0.5 percent. The developments mark closing chapters of an international wrangle sparked in April 2012 when Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner ordered the nationalization of Repsol's YPF. Repsol had owned 51 percent in YPF before the seizure by Buenos Aires, a move that sent its profits plunging by 90 percent. The expropriation soured relations between Buenos Aires and Madrid and sparked international outrage, including from Spain's European Union partners. Kirchner blamed it on Repsol's failure to make agreed investments in the firm. Spain, however, saw it as a blow to its strategic interests. The negotiated settlement was approved in March by Repsol's shareholders and in late April by Argentina's lower house of parliament. Resolving the dispute could help YPF to lure investment to the vast Vaca Muerta shale oil and gas field in Argentina, which it discovered in 2010. The find is estimated to contain the equivalent of 22.8 billion barrels of oil, described by Repsol at the time as the largest discovery in its history.