Argentina renews call for oil companies to produce more

* Energy secretary says YPF can improve output

* Government eager to reduce a surging fuel import bill

BUENOS AIRES Feb 9 (Reuters) - Argentina's central government and the country's 10 oil-producing provinces renewed their call on Thursday for petroleum companies to increase output or risk losing their concessions.

Government energy officials and provincial governors met in capital Buenos Aires to discuss what they called inadequate production, concluding that companies such as Argentina's top oil firm YPF must improve output "within a reasonable amount of time."

The government's push for more production followed Wednesday's announcement by YPF, the Argentine arm of Spanish oil major Repsol, that its Vaca Muerta shale prospect holds 22.8 billion barrels of oil and gas resources, a staggering amount that may double Argentina's oil and gas output within a decade.

The announcement was seen by some as a message from the company to the government that huge amounts of resources are waiting to be exploited under market-friendly state policies.

The government delivered a message of its own on Thursday.

"The announcements need to be compatible with the facts," Argentina's Energy Secretary Daniel Cameron told Reuters at the close of Thursday's meeting.

"I think (YPF) put more effort into producing more, and I think that they can do that," he said. "And they have to do it within a reasonable amount of time."

Martin Buzzi, governor of the southern province of Chubut, said Argentine norms provide for sanctions against underproducing companies. Those sanctions, he said, include cancellation of concessions.

YPF is bearing the brunt of government pressure for energy companies to invest more to bring new resources on stream.

The tension, say most analysts, stems from arm-twisting tactics by an administration anxious to force more energy investment and so reduce a surging fuel import bill, which is pressuring the country's trade surplus.