Repsol 'Totally Redeems' Itself With 15th Discovery This Year
By Kirsten Korosec | Sep 17, 2009
Remember that winter of discontent when Repsol YPF downgraded its proved reserves by 25 percent? The Spanish company’s recent spate of oil and natural gas discoveries have helped erase those bad memories.
If Repsol manages to keep this up, we might just forget about its Argentina problem too. The company has been a part of more than a dozen oil and gas discoveries this year including offshore Brazil, Venezuela and Sierra Leone.
The energy company is also planning to invest $1.6 billion in an effort to boost Bolivia’s natural gas output, Reuters reported late Wednesday.
Brazil, Sierra Leone, Venezuela and Bolivia all hold varying levels of risk for a company like Repsol. The energy company has some experience dealing with politically unpredictable countries. Just three years ago, Bolivian President Evo Morales seized the country’s oil and gas fields and refineries from foreign companies. Morales nationalized Bolivia’s oil and gas industry and in late 2006 negotiated new contracts with some foreign companies including Repsol and Petrobras.
Repsol, once crippled by depleted reserves, is willing to take on the risk in hopes of hitting it big. And so far, that strategy is paying off.
More:
http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10002059/repsol-totally-redeems-itself-with-15th-discovery-this-year/