Once the six months period after the notification to Argentina of the existence of a dispute regarding the expropriation of the Repsol Group’s control stake in YPF, S.A. and YPF Gas, S.A. and other related acts has elapsed, Repsol, S.A. and Repsol Butano, S.A. have filed before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) an arbitration request against Argentina for an infringement of the Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments between the Kingdom of Spain and Argentina, signed on October 3, 1991.
The arbitration request contains a brief description of the facts and legal issues to be considered. Later, the ICSID will register the request and notify such register to the parties that, once the arbitration tribunal has been constituted, must file their complete written allegations concerning the dispute.
Repsol, S.A. and Repsol Butano, S.A. will specify in such allegations the reparations and compensations to be claimed from Argentina, without prejudice of the possibility that the parties discontinue the proceeding at any moment by mutual agreement.
ICSID is the principal institution for the settlement of international investment disputes. It is located in Washington and it is one of the five institutions which make up the World Bank Group.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, December 04, 2012; Image: Repsol