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REPSOL-YPR UPS OIL-GAS STAKE. The Spanish-- Argentine oil company Repsol-YPF has exercised its option to purchase an additional 20% of the holding company that exploits the oil and natural gas reserves of Trinidad & Tobago, reports EFE News Agency (Feb. 3, 2003):
The option brings to 30% Repsol's stake in BPRY, the holding company that owns 100% of BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT), which controls the exploitation rights to all the offshore oil and gas fields that correspond to Trinidad & Tobago. In Oct. 2000 Repsol YPF had acquired a 10% holding in the parent company with an option to acquire a further 20% at a price that was not disclosed by the purchaser;
BPTT's output for 2002 averaged out to 280,000 equivalent barrels per day, 74% of it in the form of natural gas, a figure Repsol-YPF says it will ratchet up to 350,000 equivalent barrels per day by the end of the current year. Repsol's average share will be 105,000 equivalent barrels, representing 10% of its total output, and contributing to the geographical diversification of reserve that chairman Alfonso Cortina sees as a strategic priority for Repsol-YPF.
CRUISE LINE PULL-OUT. The United Kingdom -- in a travel advisory -- has branded Trinidad & Tobago a possible terrorist target, and as a result a major cruise line pulled out, reports The Miami Herald (Jan. 23, 2003). Trinidad may be experiencing a crime wave and recent kidnapping spree, but it's not a haven for terrorists, Government officials say. Instead, they say, the country is a casualty of an overcautious United Kingdom. The trouble started...