BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Spanish energy company Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday it found Argentina’s first shale oil resource outside the giant Vaca Muerta field shortly before the government seized control of its YPF unit in April.

The discovery, in the San Jorge Gulf basin in Santa Cruz province, where the majority of Argentina’s crude is produced, is further evidence the country may have some of the world’s biggest unconventional energy reserves.

BUENOS AIRES, July 26 (Reuters) – Spanish energy company
Repsol said on Thursday it found Argentina’s first
shale oil resource outside the giant Vaca Muerta field shortly
before the government seized control of its YPF unit in April.

The discovery in the San Jorge Gulf basin in Santa Cruz
province, where the majority of Argentina’s crude is produced,
is further evidence the country may have some of the world’s
biggest unconventional energy reserves.

BUENOS AIRES, June 21 (Reuters) – Pan American Energy LLC
has halted oil production at Argentina’s biggest field, Cerro
Dragon, after workers took over some facilities there to demand
higher pay, company and union officials said on Thursday.

Cerro Dragon lies in the Patagonian province of Chubut and
produces about 100,000 barrels of crude per day, or roughly 15
percent of total output in the country. Pan American, or PAE
, is controlled by oil major BP.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s state-controlled energy company YPF will need to invest $7 billion a year to boost flagging natural gas and oil output by more than a quarter by 2017, the new chief executive said on Tuesday.

Center-left President Cristina Fernandez seized control of YPF (YPFD.BA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(YPF.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) from Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in April, accusing the Spanish oil major of investing too little and making the country increasingly reliant on pricey imports.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina energy company YPF (YPFD.BA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) needs to invest $7 billion a year to boost flagging natural gas and oil output by more than 25 percent in five years, officials at the renationalized company said on Tuesday.

Center-left President Cristina Fernandez seized control of YPF from Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in April and blamed the Spanish oil major for years of inadequate investment that made the country increasingly reliant on pricey imports.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Two months before Argentina’s president seized control of the country’s biggest oil firm from Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the Spanish company said it would cost $25 billion a year to develop a world-class shale find in Patagonia.

It is money Argentina does not have and could struggle to get its hands on without deep-pocketed partners prepared to tolerate President Cristina Fernandez’s increasingly volatile and unorthodox policies.

BUENOS AIRES, April 17 (Reuters) – Argentine President
Cristina Fernandez is a sharp-tongued widow bent on honoring her
late husband’s political legacy by boosting state control over
the economy – even if that means making enemies along the way.

Defying warnings from Spain and the European Union, the
center-left leader unveiled a plan on Monday to take control of
energy company YPF from Spain’s Repsol.

MALARGUE, Argentina, March 29 (Reuters) – Argentina’s
biggest energy company, YPF, has found unconventional shale oil
and natural gas in Mendoza province, confirming the extension of
the massive Vaca Muerta area, officials said on Thursday.

YPF, which is controlled by Spain’s Repsol
, said exploration at the Payun Oeste and Valle del Rio
Grande blocks pointed to an estimated 1 billion barrels of oil
equivalent (boe) in unconventional oil and gas in Mendoza.

BUENOS AIRES, March 13 (Reuters) – Argentina’s YPF
looked set to lose two concessions on Wednesday,
equivalent to 7 percent of its national output, after the
country’s biggest oil-producing province said the energy firm
had failed to meet an ultimatum on investment plans.

YPF, controlled by Spain’s Repsol, has become
embroiled in increasingly heated disputes with authorities amid
pressure to raise output as Argentina’s fast-growing economy
spurs energy demand and costly fuel imports eat into the
nation’s cherished trade surplus.

MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) – Presidents of the Mercosur trade bloc on Tuesday agreed to individually raise tariffs on imports to shield their industries from a flood of cheaper imported goods stemming from the global economic crisis.

At a meeting in Uruguay’s capital, full members Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay said the plan to hike duties aims to protect industries from what Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called “an avalanche of predatory imports that jeopardize growth and employment.”