(Bloomberg) -- Argentina said it wants to delay paying a $16 billion court judgment over its 2012 expropriation of oil company YPF SA.

Argentina is appealing the Sept. 15 award in hopes it won’t ever have to pay. Failing that, the South American nation wants to put off paying at least for the year or so it would take for its appeal to be decided.  

The judgment equals almost 20% of the nation’s budget, lawyer Robert Giuffra said in a letter to the court Wednesday night. That amount would be impossible to pay by Oct. 16, the date sought by former YPF shareholders, whose claims are being pursued by litigation funder Burford Capital.

London-based Burford stands to receive the largest share of the award, or around $6.2 billion. It said last week that it needed to begin collection efforts right away because Argentina “has no intention of paying the judgment.”

Read More: Burford Eyes 37,000% Return in $16 Billion Argentina Award

Giuffra argued in his letter that Argentina “has paid prior judgments as quickly as possible,” citing a 2016 settlement with a group of investors, led by Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, over the nation’s 2001 sovereign debt default. 

The case is Petersen Energia Inversora SAU. v. Argentine Republic, 15-cv-02739, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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