Spanish energy giant plans to sublet Calgary offices

Spanish oil and gas giant Repsol SA is looking to sublet some of its downtown Calgary office space, adding to a market already swollen by energy industry cutbacks and layoffs.

Repsol’s Canadian branch has vacated eight of its 22 floors in the 52-floor Bankers Hall West over the past year and is now seeking tenants to take over its leases, said spokeswoman Berta Gomez in an email. She said the space was originally leased by Calgary-based Talisman Energy, which was purchased by Madrid-based Repsol in May 2015 for about US$8.3 billion in cash plus debt of US$4.7 billion.

Talisman had leased extra space for growth that didn’t occur, she said, adding that Repsol has fewer employees in the building now than when it bought Talisman because of relocations and staff cuts.

“We have arranged employees in a higher density manner in order to free up space for sublease and to promote teamwork,” she said.

She wouldn’t say how many employees work in the building now. Repsol Canada said a year ago it would cut 10 to 15 per cent of its former Talisman staff without providing numbers.

In a document filed in February, the firm said it had 1,173 workers in North America as of Dec. 31, 2016. That’s down more than 400 from Talisman’s 1,576 North American staff count at the end of 2014.

Industry watcher PetroLMI estimates 52,500 Canadian energy industry jobs were lost in 2015 and 2016, a reduction of about 25 per cent from the industry peak of over 226,000 in 2014.

In a report Tuesday, Barclay Street Real Estate said that Calgary’s overall downtown office vacancy rate increased by 0.7 of a percentage point to 24.2 per cent in the first three months of the year.