The partially renationalisation of Repsol-YPF has been in the news recently. It is quite interesting to take a closer historical look at the privatizations, recapitalisations and expropriations of National Oil Companies (or the whole domestic oil industry) in Latin America. Privatisations as well as expropriations are often presented as populist and nationalistic measures by politicians, using false arguments. Privatizations are often executed by (neo-)liberal governments because State owned oil companies got too bureaucratic, too slow and too inefficient. Expropriations are often executed by socialist governments, because the government thinks oil companies are making too much profit and the state is getting too little royalties. After expropriations State owned Oil companies often have to pay too much taxes, do become a major source of revenue for the government's budget and are usually heavily indebted, which leaves very little money for investments. Some oil companies have even experienced several privatizations and expropriations cycles. Let's illustrate this with a concise review of the most significant LatAm National Oil companies:
