Repsol

In 1927 CAMPSA (Compañía Arrendataria del Monopolio de Petróleos S.A.), headed by Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, was created with the objective of administering concessions in handing over the state monopoly of petroleum companies. Originally the company was arranged so that the state would have a minority stake. The Creation of CAMPSA intensified the progress of the Spanish refinery industry.

In 1941 the Spanish government under Francisco Franco created the INI (National Industry Institute), in order to finance and promote Spanish industries. The INI supported CAMPSA in its exploration of Tudanca, Cantabria, a monumental moment in Spanish exploration on the Iberian Peninsula. The year 1947 marked the end of a 20-year contract between the Spanish state and CAMPSA, decentralizing services while at the same time giving specific rights to the state to intervene in the company's affairs, minus distribution and commercialization, which remained exclusive to CAMPSA.[6]

In 1948, REPESA (Refinería de Petróleos de Escombreras S.A.) was incorporated for the installation of a refinery in the Valley of Escombreras (Cartagena).

REPESA became the symbol of the increasing industrial consolidation in the refining sector, as it took on the production and marketing of petrol, oils and lubricants under its own brand name.'[6] From the beginning, REPSOL was REPESA's "star brand" of petroleum[6] as a REPESA product brand.[6]

Repsol Campus in Madrid, company's headquarters built in 2013.

Repsol oil refinery in Puertollano.

A Repsol service station.

In 1999 Repsol bought 97.81% of the Argentine oil and gas company YPF S.A., which at the time was the largest oil-and-gas company in Ibero America. The acquisition better positioned Repsol as a multinational company. Repsol's acquisition of YPF also increased its capital to 288 million shares worldwide. Repsol's presence in Latin America was one of the keys to corporate growth. It was the first full year after the acquisition of YPF and the consolidation of Gas Natural SDG by global integration. The company's business structure was more balanced and international. Then in December 2001 Repsol completed an asset exchange agreement with Petrobras, making it the second largest consolidated oil company in Brazil. The same year Repsol announced new discoveries in Libya, Indonesia, Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, and Bolivia, prompting the development and marketing of its electricity business through Gas Natural SDG.[6] In 2003 Repsol tripled its reserves and production of hydrocarbons in Trinidad and Tobago. North American expansion in 2008 saw Repsol open a massive regasification plant on the east coast of Canada with enough capacity to supply up to 20% of the gas demand for New York and New England.[6]

Following years of opposition from environmentalist groups, Spain finally gave permission in August 2014 for the company and its partners to explore prospects off the Canary Islands.[7] Eventually, in January 2015, after two months of exploration about 50 kilometers off the coasts of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, the company said in a statement it only found small deposits that were not worth drilling thus scrapping the project.[8]

In 2008 Repsol began an intensive exploration campaign in which it focused its efforts on and invested in exploring in new areas, with results that enabled the company to change its profile. Using cutting edge technology, the company made over 30 hydrocarbon discoveries, many of which were considered to be among the largest in the world. This efforts was recognized by Petroleum Economist magazine as the "Best energy company of the year".[9]

In December 2014 Repsol announced that it would buy Canadian oil company Talisman Energy in a transaction worth about $15.1 billion Cdn ($13 billion US).[10]

Exploration and production of oil and natural gas are in charge of Repsol Exploration SA and its many subsidiaries. It is present in several countries as Spain, Norway, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Malaysia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, United States of America, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Russia and so many others. Repsol's had an intense exploration campaign throughout these years, with a 38% success rate.

The oil and gas exploration and production activity is Repsol's main growth driver. Repsol has become a world leader in exploration, with over 40 finds since 2008. To guarantee this activity in the long term, in 2013 Repsol incorporated 65 exploration blocks, mainly in the United States (44 blocks) and Norway (6 blocks), into its mining holdings.

Production was doubled as a result of the acquisition of Talisman Energy in 2015. As of January 2021 net production is averaging 715,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Downstream activity involves the supply and trading of crude and products, oil refining, petroleum product marketing (Marketing), distribution and marketing of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), production and marketing of chemicals and the development of new energies.

The Repsol Group owns and operates five refineries in Spain (Cartagena, A Coruña, Bilbao, Puertollano and Tarragona), with a combined distillation capacity of 896,000 bo/d. Installed capacity at La Pampilla refinery (Peru), in which Repsol holds a 51.03% stake and is the operator, is 102,000 bo/d.

Marketing their products is in charge of Repsol, CAMPSA and Petronor brand this through an extensive network of over 6,900 outlets, of which over 6,500 are service stations, distributed in Europe and Latin America. Repsol is one of the leading retail distributions of LPG, bottled and bulk, worldwide and is the first in Spain and Latin America. LPG sales totaled 2,464 Mt in 2013.

The Chemicals division produces and markets a wide variety of products in over 90 countries and it is one of the leaders of the market on the Iberian Peninsula. Its activities range from basic petrochemicals to derivatives.

Production is concentrated at three petrochemical complexes located in Spain (Puertollano and Tarragona) and Portugal (Sines), where there is a high level of integration between basic and derivatives, as well as with refining activities in the case of the Spanish facilities. Repsol also has a number of subsidiary and affiliate companies, through which the company produces polypropylene compounds, chemical specialties and synthetic rubber at special plants.