The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has stayed a lower-court order that required Argentina to hand over its 51 percent controlling stake in oil and gas company YPF while the South American nation pursues an appeal. The decision, issued on Friday, blocks enforcement of U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska’s 30 June ruling, which sought the share transfer to help satisfy a US$16.1 billion judgment obtained last year by investors Petersen Energía Inversora and Eton Park Capital Management, whose claims are backed by litigation financier Burford Capital. Argentina argued that turning over the shares would violate its sovereign-immunity protections and domestic law, which bars disposal of the state’s YPF holding without a two-thirds vote in Congress. The U.S. Department of Justice supported Buenos Aires, telling the appeals court that immediate execution could disrupt bilateral relations. The stay will remain in place at least until the appeals panel rules on the merits; Argentina’s opening brief on the turnover dispute is due 25 September, while a separate appeal of the underlying damages award is already under way. The reprieve spares President Javier Milei’s government from an asset transfer officials had called “impossible to execute”, though it does not overturn the multibillion-dollar damages judgment. Should Argentina ultimately lose both appeals, the investors could again seek to seize the YPF stake or other assets. The court’s order gives the country several months to press arguments that the shares are immune from attachment and that the underlying expropriation case was wrongly decided.