Repsol SA

Repsol SA, integrated Spanish petroleum company with a presence in more than 50 countries. Headquarters are in Madrid.

The company was organized in 1987 upon the consolidation of a number of Spanish state-owned companies engaged in exploration, production, refining, transport, and other activities in oil, gas, and petrochemicals. The Spanish state was the sole shareholder, and the company name Repsol SA was chosen from a widely recognized brand of lubricating oil that had been marketed since 1951 by one of the company’s predecessors, Refineria de Petróleos de Escombreras. Following Spain’s accession in 1986 to the European Economic Community (a predecessor of the European Union), the state was obliged to deregulate the oil sector. The process of privatizing Repsol started in 1989 and lasted eight years, culminating with all the shares of the company being held in private hands. Repsol was forced to adjust to foreign competition in Spain, but it expanded its own operations overseas to areas such as North Africa, the Middle East, and South America.

In 1999 Repsol acquired a majority stake in Argentina’s state-owned oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), more than doubling its petroleum reserves. The company was renamed Repsol YPF SA. In Argentina’s highly regulated petroleum market, the new company found limited profit in expanding production, though it discovered a major shale oil field in Neuquén province in 2011. In April 2012 the Argentine government, impatient with lack of growth in the country’s energy sector, replaced YPF’s managers and introduced legislation to nationalize almost all of Repsol’s majority stake. Those moves effectively divested the Spanish company of half its petroleum reserves and more than half its production. The effects of the loss on Repsol’s future depended on eventual compensation for the nationalized stock as well as the company’s other producing and refining ventures in Latin America, North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Repsol SA handles all aspects of the oil business, including exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas; transportation of petroleum products, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and natural gas; and the refining and production of a wide variety of oil products and their derivatives as well as petrochemicals. In addition, the company owns stakes in alternative energy ventures such as biofuels and charging systems for electric automobiles.