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Argentina names new head of YPF oil company

President Cristina Kirchner on Friday introduced an Argentine engineer who until recently had been working for a US-based oilfield services company as the new head of the YPF oil company.

In an event signing into law the expropriation of 51 percent of the YPF shares Kirchner introduced Miguel Galuccio, 44, formerly with oilfield services giant Schlumberger.

“We will have a YPF in line with the interests of the country and absolutely professional,” Kirchner said at the event.

Galuccio worked with YPF in the 1990s, when the Argentine-owned company had been privatized but before Spain’s Reposol took it over in 1999. Galuccio managed YPF operations in Indonesia before moving to work with Schlumberger in 1999.

Argentine lawmakers approved by a wide margin late Thursday the hugely popular takeover of YPF — until days ago a subsidiary of Spanish oil company Repsol — sealing a measure that has roiled the country’s trade ties with Europe.

Kirchner has argued that the move was justified because Argentina faces sharp rises in its bill for imported oil, and Repsol has failed to make agreed investments needed to expand domestic production.

Spain, the European Union and international organizations have criticized the measure, warning that it puts Argentina’s overall trade and investment relations in jeopardy.

YPF accounts for 34 percent of Argentina’s domestic oil production, 25 percent of domestic gas production and 54 percent of domestic refining, according to the Argentine Oil Institute.

Argentina’s oil imports doubled to $9.3 billion in 2011 from the previous year and are set to top $12 billion this year, according to official figures.