Repsol signals $7bn asset sales and cost cuts

The Spanish company plans to sell off assets by 2020 and cut capital expenditure by 40% in order to reduce debt

Spain's Repsol has signalled plans to sell off €6.2bn ($7.1bn) of assets by 2020 and cut capital expenditure by 40% from 2014 levels, as it struggles to maintain dividends and reduce debt -- based on its oil price forecast of $50/barrel oil and US gas price forecast of $3.50/MMBtu, out to 2018. Under its first strategic plan since finalising its $8.3bn takeover of Canada's Talisman this May, Repsol vowed to achieve cost savings of €2.1bn/year from 2018 through efficiencies based on a $60/b upstream price in 2018-20, applying "strong capital discipline". "We are in too many countries," chief executive Josu Jon Imaz told a briefing on 15 October: "So we will try to reduce our exposure to high