The head of Argentine state oil firm YPF has handed in his resignation at the request of the government, the company said, as the country's new leader continues to get rid of officials who defended the previous president's interventionist policies.
CEO Miguel Galuccio's resignation will take effect at the end of next month, a YPF spokesman told Reuters on March 9. He was appointed in 2012 by then-President Cristina Fernandez after she seized control of the company from Spanish oil giant Repsol.
President Mauricio Macri, elected in November on an open markets platform, has pledged to get Argentina's economy moving, in large part by ditching Fernandez's protectionist policies. He already forced out the heads of the central bank and the national communications regulator, both Fernandez loyalists.
Macri is expected to attract foreign investment to the country, especially in the energy sector. Argentina sits atop one of the world's biggest shale oil and gas formations, but foreign companies were scared off by Fernandez's policies.
Since his December inauguration Macri has also lifted trade and currency controls, cut grains export taxes and floated the peso currency, allowing for a 36.6% devaluation to 15.5 per U.S. dollar.
State news agency Telam said Galuccio was asked to step down "due to a restructuring" at the company. The government has not said who will replace him.
U.S. President Barack Obama will make an official state visit to Buenos Aires later this month to discuss topics including energy. Fernandez had a frosty relationship with Washington, but bilateral relations have thawed since Macri's election.
Argentina pulled in less than a quarter of the foreign direct investment that went to Chile in 2014 and less than half the amounts that went to Uruguay and Colombia, according to the United Nations.
Argentina is now in a position to draw foreign direct and portfolio investments worth 5% of gross domestic product, equivalent to some US$25 billion annually, said local brokerage Puente.
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