Repsol selling off oilfields

Repsol had acquired the TSP fields, located off the south-eastern coast of Trinidad, from bpTT for US$229 million in 2005.

In an emailed response late Friday night, Repsol spokeswoman Heidi Diquez said the company agreed to a deal Friday morning.

She declined to name the buyer until the transaction was complete, but sources have told Sunday Newsday that Anglo-French energy company Perenco will acquire the assets.

Diquez said the company will maintain a presence in Trinidad through its interests in bpTT and other non-controlled assets.

The sale is all part of Repsol’s “dynamic portfolio management programme” in which several alternatives are being considered, including the possible sale of assets in Trinidad & Tobago, Diquez said.

She added that the current buyer has agreed to maintain the current Repsol workforce.

Repsol, which has taken a hit from the economic downturn in Spain, has already reduced its holdings in TT, selling its shares in Atlantic’s Trains 1-4 to Royal Dutch Shell in January 2014, in a US$6.7 billion deal that also included its gas assets in Peru.

Sources have told Newsday that staff were told in a meeting Friday that lasted about three hours that the company had received a bid, but, as per TSP’s operating agreement, Repsol has to give its local partners first preference to purchase the fields.

State entities Petrotrin and the National Gas Company each own 15 percent in the TSP fields through production sharing contracts. They will have 15 days to decide if they want to exercise their right to buy the assets instead.

If they choose not to, the bid from Perenco had already been accepted and the deal will go through in December. So, as it stands, the sale can go four ways: either NGC buys TSP outright; Petrotrin buys it; NGC and Petrotrin together; or Perenco acquires the assets.

Asked if the government was concerned that such a major international player in the local industry was selling its TT holdings, Energy Minister Nicole Ollivierre said in a low oil price environment some companies will either seek to expand while others will choose to focus on core assets. Regardless, the TSP asset remains “an important part of the country’s oil production portfolio,” she said.

“We are confident that its operations can continue to be viable,” she told Sunday Newsday in a text message.