Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

for the Bolivian oil company, see YPFB

Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF -means Fiscal Petroleum Fields-) was an Argentine state-owned oil company.

The company, specialising in the exploration, production, refining and commercialisation of petroleum, had its origin in 1907, when the black gold was found near the city of Comodoro Rivadavia in Chubut. The company was created in 1922 under the government of Hipólito Yrigoyen, and was first directed by Enrique Mosconi. It was the first oil company completely run by the state outside the Soviet Union.^{[citation needed]}

Since its foundation, YPF built not only several extracting facilities but whole towns and cities, such as Comodoro Rivadavia, Caleta Olivia in Santa Cruz, Plaza Huincul in Neuquén and General Mosconi in Salta.

In 1991, and as one of his many controversial privatizations by Carlos Menem, YPF was privatized keeping 5% of its shares for the state. In 1999 the Government sold its 5% share to Repsol S.A., and later the Spanish multinational corporation launched a successful bid taking over the entire company. The union of the two companies acquired the name of Repsol YPF, whose former YPF side currently represents almost 50% of the company's production.

In 2004, President Néstor Kirchner created Enarsa or Energía Argentina Sociedad Anónima, an energy company of which the state controls 53%. Enarsa recently joined efforts with Venezuelan state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela.