Repsol shedding assets to cut debt

OIL • Repsol SA completed the sale of liquefied natural gas assets to Royal Dutch Shell Plc as the biggest Spanish oil company strengthens its balance sheet.

The sale of assets in Peru and Trinidad and Tobago, and the disposal of a stake in a power plant to BP Plc will cut Repsol’s net debt by $3.3 billion, the company said today in a statement. Its asset sales have reached to more than 5 billion euros ($7 billion), above a 4.5 billion- euro target for sales between 2012 and 2016, Repsol said.

Chairman Antonio Brufau said two months ago Repsol will use proceeds from asset sales to expand the company overseas after its YPF unit in Argentina was seized in 2012. Repsol may spend as much as $10 billion on acquisitions and is studying unconventional assets in North America, he said.