BUENOS AIRES: Argentina's state-controlled energy company YPF announced Wednesday it has inked a deal to buy out the local operations of US oil and gas firm Apache for $800 million.
YPF said the deal would allow the company to "position itself as the country's number-one natural gas operation," noting it is already Argentina's biggest oil producer.
President Cristina Kirchner's government nationalized YPF in 2012 when it seized Spanish firm Repsol's majority stake in the company.
Apache's operations are in Neuquen, Rio Negro and Tierra del Fuego provinces. The company had been in Argentina since 2001.
"Apache's employees in Argentina have done an outstanding job finding and developing new reserves and creating commercial opportunities in the region since we entered the country in 2001, and we are grateful for their many contributions," chairman and CEO G. Steven Farris said in a statement.
He said the acquisition was "consistent" with its efforts to focus its portfolio on long-term growth opportunities in areas where it already has strength, such as North American onshore drilling.
As of the end of last year, Apache had estimated its reserves in Argentina at about 540 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent.
During 2013, Apache's production from the country averaged 256 million cubic feet of gas equivalent per day.
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