Repsol shares soar on big Argentina shale oil find

[November 08, 2011]  MADRID (AP) -- Shares in Spain's Repsol energy company are soaring after the company announced it has made a major new shale oil find in Argentina that boosts by a third its total amount of recoverable oil.

Repsol YPF SA's shares were up 5.4 percent in midday trading Tuesday in Madrid.

The company said the discovery includes 927 million barrels of recoverable resources, 741 million of which is oil.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez in May announced a huge shale oil deposit in Neuquen province, but less than 10 percent of it had been explored at the time.

Repsol owns the rights to 12,000 square kilometers (4,633 sq. miles) of the 30,000 square kilometer (11,583 sq. mile) basin. Like other oil companies, it has only recently begun to search them.

[Associated Press]

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