Few major oil companies have ever drilled in Spain because of currency restrictions and a law that limited foreign participation in drilling companies to 25%. But now Spain is in desperate financial straits, needs both oil and dollars, cannot afford its own major drilling program. Last week the Spanish Cortes (parliament) passed a sweeping new oil law to lure foreign drillers.
For the first time, both management and capital can be 100% foreign, and the government will guarantee free conversion of profits, to be split fifty-fifty, into hard currencies. U.S. oil companies have long been plugging for such a change....