The company YPF will invest US$3.1bn in the hydrocarbon concessions that the company possesses in the province of Santa Cruz over the next five years.

According to a YPF statement, this agreement will ensure greater investment horizons and a record in maintenance of lasting jobs, as well as the increase in tax revenues of the province.

The extension of the agreement is “highly beneficial for the province”, and doubles the average investment that YPF had in the province during the last five years.

“This decision dramatically reverses the planned divestment of the company in this province,” says YPF.

Santa Cruz became the first province to formalise the national government’s decision to give back its stake in YPF, and contributes to the strategic objective of increasing reserves and production of hydrocarbons in Argentina. Taking into account the proven reserves of hydrocarbons in the province of YPF, the fee agreed in Santa Cruz is proportionately larger comparing to other fees paid in the province of Santa Cruz by other companies or by YPF in other areas of concessions in other provinces .

The YPF statement features labour improvements in the province, thanks to this investment, focusing on multiplication of direct and indirect jobs in oil and gas industries.

With this agreement YPF “shows its clear intention and commitment to this province and participate actively and strategically in reaching the main objective, which is to reverse the country’s energy imbalance”.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is expected to announce a new economic structure for Argentine oil company YPF at tomorrow’s meeting with province governors. The decision will come after weeks of plummeting stocks and highly publicised discontent with YPF’s Spanish majority stakeholders, Repsol.

Earlier today, Pagina 12 cited Neuquén province governor Jorge Sapag as saying that Argentina’s largest oil and gas producer will soon be reconfigured as a “mixed” capital structure, built of both public and private sector shareholders.

“We think there is going to be news in the meeting the president has called for Thursday,” he said. “The state will probably want to rule a mixed economy, and encourage private investment.”

The statements came following the governor’s meeting with planning minister Julio De Vido. Although Sapag did not mention De Vido’s in his statements, he did include president Fernández’s sentiments.

“There is no time to lose,” he said. “I spoke with the president of the nation, [and she is] ready to receive capital from all over the world.”

Spain’s Repsol currently owns more than half of the oil company, after former president Carlos Menem’s decision to privatise it in 1993.

Ever since then, several detractors and political parties have called for the re-nationalisation of the oil resources.

Their voices grew louder as the provinces of Chubut and Santa Cruz expired four concessions with the company. The governors of the provinces cited a lack of YPF’s promised investment in exploration and production.

The rocky political waters have caused Deutsche Bank to cut its rating on shares of YPF.

“Since the start of the conflict between YPF and the government, we were hopeful for a better resolution,” said a Deutsche Bank report published by Dow Jones. “But the removal of concessions and the possibility of the government becoming a shareholder of the company indicate that the upside is limited from current levels, at least in the short term.”

The remains of former president, Néstor Kirchner, were put to rest this morning in a mausoleum built in his honor in the city cemetery of Río Gallegos in the province of Santa Cruz.

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accompanied by her children and a few family friends, attended the private ceremony of her husband. The public will be allowed to visit the mausoleum this afternoon starting at 2 pm.

Kirchner died last year on 27 October of cardiorespiratory arrest in his home in Calafate.

Social and political organisations are preparing ceremonies in different parts of the country to be held tomorrow to honor the first anniversary of the former president’s death.

After 56 days of protests, the teachers of Santa Cruz province were evicted with water tanks by the federal police last night while they were setting up camp in front of the Ministry of Labour in Buenos Aires. A reported nine people have been injured; four were detained by the Police and later released.

Although the provincial government offered a 25% wage increase on 2nd May, Santa Cruz teachers union (Adosac) continue to press for their initial demand of a 50% increase. They are now in Buenos Aires demanding for dialogue and intervention of Minister of Labour Carlos Tomada.

Ministry officials received Santa Cruz teachers and concluded that the issue should be resolved by the provincial jurisdiction and not through the national labour ministry.

According to Adosac finance secretary Ezequiel Alós: “We were received by one of Tomada’s advisors, who said she wasn’t informed about our strike’s characteristics; we described them and obviously requested the intervention of the Labour Ministry, because the State must guarantee the solving of conflicts”.

Whilst the provincial government is hoping for a judicial resolution that would make the protests illegal, Governor Daniel Peralta has asked teachers to resume the strike.

During a press conference this morning, members of Adosac said the government was responsible for yesterday’s violent turn of events: “the President and (chief of Cabinet) Aníbal Fernández are not doing more than reaffirming a repressive scheme”. In response, officials are accusing Adosac of having political motivations, a claim which they have rejected.

In wake of yesterday’s event, teachers are calling for a march today at 3pm in Avenida de Mayo and 9 de Julio. They will evaluate the situation before Sunday’s teacher’s assembly due to take place in the city of Comandante Piedra Buena.

Today, the Private Oil Union in the Argentine province of Santa Cruz enters its 25th day of conflict. Oil workers, who originally called for a strike to demand a collective bargaining agreement, have occupied the union offices in the cities of Caleta Olivia, Las Heras and Río Gallegos in response to the judicial intervention in the case.

Judge Mario Albarrán dismissed union’s secretary general Héctor Segovia, his deputy Rubén Retamoso and the entire executive committee on the grounds of their reluctance to abide by the compulsory conciliation. This is a period of seven days to negotiate the resolution of union conflicts.

Last night, sources from the national Ministry of Labour confirmed daily La Nación that Carlos Flaquier, normaliser delegate for the Federative Union of Private Oil and Gas, will take over Segovia. Minister of Labour Carlos Tomada will support Flaquier’s appointment in a meeting with Alberto Roberti, head of the Argentine Federative Union of Oil, Gas and Biofuels.

The “pacific” take of the union offices began early on Sunday morning. Near a hundred oil workers and recently unemployed from the sector, entered the facilities of the Private Oil Union in Caleta Olivia. This, and the rest of the offices, was occupied despite police officers were guarding the premises.

“We are supporting neither Segovia nor Retamoso. If both of them have to leave the executive committee, fine. But we will not let any controller, or any outsider for that matter, in. This is our home”, argued unionist Marcelo Salguero in the local news portal Voces y Apuntes. “We will not give up on the union”.

“We will have to defend our union no matter what. We will not use firearms, but we will not overlook any resource to protect it”, said Luis Cárdenas, one of the suspended unionists. He blamed provincial governor Daniel Peralta for “what may happen [from now on]”. Thus, he referred to Peralta’s public request for the resignation of Segovia.

In public declarations for radio stations in the province, Cárdenas assured Peralta’s decision to ask for judicial intervention in the union has set a precedent for the intervention of other unions in conflict –such as the teacher’s union in Santa Cruz, currently on an indefinite strike for salary rise.

So far, the province of Santa Cruz has lost royalties of US$36 million. And the possibility of an oil shortage during the next days is latent. The 25-day general strike directly affects extraction in the oilfields of San Jorge basin, which represents the 95% of the provincial production and a 20% of the national production.

Bolivian president Evo Morales has said he would welcome a multi-nation investigation into the alleged attempt on his life last week.

Three foreigners were killed in Santa Cruz in the police operation. They included a man from Ireland and one with joint Bolivian-Hungarian-Croatian nationality.

Prior to the shoot-out, after which two other foreign men were arrested, Mr Morales ordered increased security measures after claiming to have received intelligence suggesting an attack was imminent.

Today he released a photograph of a man lying in bed with automatic weapons either side of him to news network Al Jazeera. It is not clear from the photograph who the man nor whether he is dead or alive.

Both countries have publicly denied any involvement with an attempt to overthrow the current Bolivian government. President Morales also asked US leader Barak Obama to deny any involvement, which he duly did on Monday.

Irish representatives have flown to Bolivia to identify the body of citizen Michael Dwyer. They also requested further information as to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the suspected terrorists. Morales denied these requests saying it was “very serious” that countries with “no authority” would attempt to intervene in the Bolivian investigation.

“I am able to process them myself“, he said on Tuesday, speaking of the deaths. Irish foreign minister Michael Martin said they had “the right to discover how one of their citizens was killed”.

Today, Mr Morales invited “the foreign secretary, or whomever else, to come to Bolivia and verify how they did it, how they launched bombs, how armed they were”.

Although he did not directly accuse the Irish, Croatian and Hungarian governments of being involved, he said he would be surprised if they tried to defend the actions of their citizens.

Three foreigners were killed and two more were arrested in the Bolivian town of Santa Cruz this evening. They were accused of attempting to assassinate president Evo Morales.

The leader ordered an increase in security measures yesterday after claiming to have received evidence of a pending terrorist attack from foreign assassins. Mr Morales was not in Bolivia at the time; he was travelling to Venezuela for a summit.

“Yesterday, I gave instruction to the vice president to move to arrest these mercenaries and this morning I was informed of a half-hour shootout at a hotel in the city of Santa Cruz,” said Mr Morales.

According to the president, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and a cabinet minister were also on the terrorists’ hit list.

Reports from Santa Cruz are mixed, police are unsure as to the nationalities of the alleged assassins, some believe they were Hungarian, whilst others believe they were citizens of Romania and Ireland. One policeman suspected Bolivian nationals were involved.

The two people arrested on suspicion of attempting to assassinate an elected official have been taken to the capital La Paz, some 900km away.

The president recently ended a five-day hunger strike where he was campaigning for the right to run for a successive term in office. Government sources said the alleged assassins had links with extreme right-wing groups, associated with the opposition to Mr Morales’ leftist government.

Early reports from Bolivia suggested the suspected terrorists had first targeted the Santa Cruz home of Roman Catholic Cardinal Julio Terrazas with dynamite.

Although structural damage occurred, no one was hurt in the blast.