MADRID -(Dow Jones)- Repsol YPF SA (REPYY, REP.MC) has decided to cancel 10 shipments of liquefied natural gas to Argentina scheduled for 2012 because it says an Argentine public energy company has failed to meet the terms of the contract, a spokesman for the company said Friday.
Kristian Rix, a spokesman for Repsol, said Energia Argentina SA, or Enarsa, a state-run energy company founded in 2004, repeatedly failed to meet the terms of the contract, including providing a letter of credit. He added that Repsol reserved the right to take legal action against Enarsa for breach of contract.
In early May, under the leadership of President Cristina Kirchner, Argentina nationalized 51% of YPF SA (YPF, YPFD.BA), the country's leading oil-and-gas company, leaving Repsol with at 6.4% stake.
YPF started as a state-controlled firm in 1922, before being privatized by the government in the 1990s, with Spain's Repsol YPF eventually taking control in 1999.
Kirchner's husband and predecessor, former President Nestor Kirchner, tried to get the federal government back into the oil business when he founded Enarsa in 2004. But Enarsa remains a bit player and is more of a natural gas importer than a serious producer.
-By Ilan Brat, The Wall Street Journal, +34-91-395-8125, ilan.brat@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 18, 2012 14:01 ET (18:01 GMT)
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