Bridas Corporation is an Argentine independent oil and gas holding company based in Buenos Aires. Since March 2010 it is 50% owned by

China National Offshore Oil Corporation China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC Group (Chinese: 中国海洋石油总公司 Pinyin: ''Zhōngguó Háiyáng Shíyóu Zǒnggōngsī''), is one of the largest national oil companies in China, and the third-largest national oil c ...

Operations

Bridas Corporation was founded by the Bulgheroni family in 1948, and grew to become the second-largest producer of fossil fuels in Argentina (after the state-owned

YPF YPF S.A. (, formerly ; English: "Fiscal Oilfields") is a vertically integrated, majority state-owned Argentine energy company, engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, and the transportation, refining, and marketing of gas and petr ...

), with production of over 78 million

boe BOE, BoE or Boe may refer to: Abbreviations, acronyms or initialisms * Bank of England, the central bank of the United Kingdom * Bank of English, a representative subset of the 4.5 billion words COBUILD corpus * Barrel of oil equivalent, a uni ...

in 2004.Gas & Oil: Argentina's Bridas eyes $ 5 bn oil asset sale
/ref> Bridas has focused in the South America Southern Cone and Central Asia. Its activities includes four principal areas of operations: * exploration and development of oil and gas reserves and the production of oil and gas; * marketing and transportation of oil, gas and oil products; * gathering, treatment, processing and distribution of gas and power generation; * drilling and well services.

Trans-Afghanistan pipeline controversy

Bridas began expanding into the

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n energy sector in 1987, and secured its first large-scale contract (gas exploration rights in

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

), in 1992.''World Press Review'': Timeline of Competition between Unocal and Bridas for the Afghanistan Pipeline (December 2001)
/ref> Between 1995 and 1997, CEO

Carlos Bulgheroni Carlos Alberto Bulgheroni (March 9, 1945 – September 3, 2016) was an Argentine businessman prominent in the nation's energy sector, and the country's richest man at the time of his death. Early life Carlos Bulgheroni was born in Rufino, Santa ...

was personally involved in negotiations between Bridas and the governments of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and Turkmenistan, as well as the ruling

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

faction in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, to build the Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline.''Clarín'' (11/8/2005)
/ref> These negotiations were in competition with those undertaken by

Unocal Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...

,''BBC News'': Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline (12/4/1997)
/ref> and although an agreement with Unocal-led corporation

CentGas Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) was a consortium formed in the 1990s to develop a project to build the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline from Turkmenistan's natural gas fields to Pakistan. The consortium had also considered an extension of t ...

was reached, the deal was forfeited in January 1998 in favor of one with Bridas. Instability in Afghanistan delayed construction of the pipeline. In 2006, Bulgheroni indicated interest in Bridas' involvement with the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline project, which continued to be hampered by the ongoing war in the Central Asian nation.

Pan American Energy

In 1997, Bridas and

Amoco Amoco () is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States, and owned by BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, a ...

(now BP) established a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

named Pan American Energy. The stake of BP is 60% and the stake of Bridas is 40%. On November 28, 2010, it was announced that Bridas would acquire the BP's stake for $7.06 billion in cash. In 2011 the deal was cancelled. In September 2017, BP and Bridas agreed to merge their interests in Pan American Energy and Axion Energy to form a jointly owned Pan American Energy Group.

References

{{Reflist Oil and gas companies of Argentina Holding companies established in 1948

Operations

Trans-Afghanistan pipeline controversy

Pan American Energy

See also

References