Suppose the British government knew
that a key shareholder in Centrica, our last great British energy
company and owner of British Gas, was to sell its stake to Gazprom, so
making Russian state ownership inevitable. I hope that, in this
scenario, the government would expand the provision of the Enterprise Act
that allows Britain to block takeovers that are against the national
interest to include gas and nuclear power. (The act is currently
confined to defence, financial services and the media.) I'm pretty
certain that Centrica chairman Sir Roger Carr,
also president of the CBI, shares the same view. No country can be
indifferent to the ownership of strategic assets and thus the use to
which they might be put. Its first obligation is to the well-being of
its citizens.
The Argentinian government was faced with just this dilemma last week. YPF is its national oil and gas company, which it sold to the Spanish oil company Repsol
for $15bn in 1999 as part of its privatisation drive. It has not been a
great deal for either party. Argentinian oil and gas production has
slumped, exploration for new reserves has been run down and this
oil-rich country is now an oil importer, with Repsol accused of looting
the company and betraying its obligations. READ MORE
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