Refl: Mengenai penguasaan terhadap BBM, ada metode Putin (Rusia), metode
Cristina Fernades (Argentina) metode Chavez (Venezuela), apakah SBY juga
punya metode tersendiri? Bila ada, bagaimana caranya?
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/commentary/as-argentinas-bid-is-far-from-the-first-heres-how-to-seize-an-oil-company/512645
As Argentina's Bid Is Far From the First, Here's How to Seize an Oil
Company
Joshua E. Keating | April 20, 2012
The global energy industry is in an uproar this week after Argentine
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's announcement that her
government planned to seize a majority stake in YPF, the country's largest
oil company. The Spanish government has threatened retaliatory action —
Spanish energy giant Repsol is currently YPF's largest shareholder — for
what's being called the largest oil nationalization since the Russian
government's takeover of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos in 2003.
While the hostile state takeover of a $7.7 billion company is making
waves, such nationalizations are hardly unprecedented, particularly in
Latin America. Today, government-controlled oil companies, many of which
acquired their holdings through takeovers like Argentina's, control 85
percent of the world's oil reserves and 55 percent of production. Here's a
quick look at the anatomy of a government takeover:
Choose your moment
Research has shown that oil nationalizations happen most typically while
oil prices are high and political institutions are weak. Nationalizations
in countries — from Iraq to Libya — were relatively common during the
1970s, then nearly unheard of during the 1980s and 1990s. They then
returned with a vengeance in the last decade, with major seizures in
Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Russia.
Oil has never just been a commodity; it's a strategic asset as well, and
forced nationalizations are as old as the oil industry itself.
In 1938, the Mexican government expropriated half a billion dollars worth
of foreign oil assets after the companies failed to come to an agreement
with labor unions over working conditions. The seizure set off a war of
words with Standard Oil and many countries chose to boycott Mexican
petroleum products, but the government stuck to its guns, creating what is
now known as the state oil monopoly Pemex, the world's second-largest
non-public company after Saudi Aramco, as of 2006.
Many recent post-Soviet and Latin American oil seizures have actually been
"re-nationalizations," state takeovers of energy resources that had been
privatized during the free-market reforms of the 1990s. This includes YPF,
which was originally a state monopoly privatized in 1993.
Build your case
It's usually wise to set up some kind of legal framework before you start
seizing private property. In 2001, two years after he took power,
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez passed a new hydrocarbon law increasing
the amount of royalties paid by foreign oil companies and increasing
direct state control over the national oil company, PdVSA, which had
operated as a relatively independent entity under previous
administrations.
Over the next several years, Chavez built up his rhetorical case against
the foreign oil companies until he finally began seizing their assets in
2007.
As he put it at the time, "To God what is God's, and to Caesar what is
Caesar's. …Today we also say: to the people what is the people's!"
Fernandez presented the YPF takeover in similar terms. "We are the only
country in Latin America, and, I would say, in practically the entire
world, that doesn't manage its own natural resources," she said.
Make them an offer they can't refuse
Most oil company nationalizations aren't outright seizures — governments
at least go through the motions of compensating the former owners for
their lost assets.
Surprisingly, the United Nations has even weighed in on the reimbursement
issue: A General Assembly Resolution passed in 1962 decrees that in cases
of nationalization carried out "on grounds or reasons of public utility,
security or the national interest … the owner shall be paid appropriate
compensation, in accordance with the rules in force in the State taking
such measures in the exercise of its sovereignty and in accordance with
international law."
Beyond the legal ramifications of just booting out the old owners, it can
sometimes be useful to allow them to continue to play some role in your
country's oil industry — after all, they probably know what they are
doing. After Venezuela's state-owned PdVSA took over several multibillion
dollar projects in the oil-rich Orinoco belt in 2007, Chevron, BP, Total,
and Statoil signed agreements that allowed them to continue operating in
the region as minority stakeholders. Conocco Phillips and Exxon Mobil
refused. Oil productivity fell by nearly a quarter following Chavez's
nationalization.
Put the boot down
It's always preferable to handle these sorts of things with a boardroom
handshake, but sometimes a firmer hand is needed. In 2009, Chavez
mobilized troops to assist in the seizure of 60 oil service companies as
part of his gradual takeover of the oil industry.
In 2006, Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered foreign oil companies —
including Repsol — to renegotiate their contracts with the government
within six months or they had to leave the country. Just to make his point
clear, he sent troops to occupy 56 oil and gas sites throughout the
country.
Argentina has wasted no time. The government representative on YPF's board
reportedly arrived at work this week with a list of Spanish executives who
had been banned from the company's headquarters.
The Putin method
Another, often cheaper, method of nationalization is to build a criminal
case against the management team of an oil company and take it apart, bit
by bit. In the case of the Kremlin's prosecution of former Yukos CEO
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, this had the added benefit of removing a troublesome
political rival.
Yukos had been the first fully privatized Russian oil company of the
post-Soviet era. But following a number of disputes between Khodorkovsky
and the Kremlin — over state control of the pipeline industry, the planned
sale of big shares to American oil companies, as well as his own political
ambitions — he was arrested and charged with tax evasion in 2003. Over the
next two years, Yukos was ordered to pay billions of dollars in back taxes
and forced into bankruptcy.
The last of its assets were seized in 2005 and eventually acquired
indirectly by state energy monopoly Gazprom.
Don't get overthrown
Seizing international companies may score populist points with voters, but
it can also make some powerful enemies in a hurry. Two years after Iran
nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Prime Minister Mohammed
Mossadegh was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup, returning the Shah Mohammed
Reza Palavi to power. The shah's government paid $70,000,000 in
compensation to Anglo-Iranian in 1954.
Chavez survived a coup attempt just months after the passage of his
controversial hydrocarbons law.
Fernandez's nationalization of YPF seems like the latest in a series of
provocative international gestures, including efforts to reassert control
over the Falkland Islands. While she's clearly counting on the political
benefits of these bold movements making up for the international backlash,
she's entering very dangerous waters.
Joshua E. Keating is an associate editor at Foreign Policy
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