Repsol’s integration of Talisman gets passing grade in Norway

Spanish oil company Repsol bought the Canadian energy company Talisman in 2015 for $8.3 billion, plus assumed debt of $4.7 billion.

Given that Talisman had offshore oil and gas assets in Norway, the Norwegian authorities have performed an audit of the integration process between Spanish oil giant’s subsidiary, Repsol Exploration Norge and Talisman subsidiary, Talisman Energy Norge.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, a body conducting the audit, said on Monday that the audit was done to verify that the integration process of Repsol’s and Talisman’s Norwegian subsidiaries has been done in accordance with regulations.

The PSA said that the audit focused on the establishment of the management system, employee participation, continuous improvement, the company’s identification and assessment of health, safety and environment (HSE) risks linked to the integration and the company’s follow-up of the integration process.

According to the organization, the audit was set up early so that the integration process can be followed over time.

The audit found no non-conformities and improvement points. Although, PSA said that the company can still improve its competencies in various contexts significant for HSE in the company.

Notable improvements suggested by the PSA are clarification of common understanding of the concept of participation and how it is practiced; the time between announcing major changes and clarification of the conditions/logistics associated with them; early mapping of HSE risk and risk assessments linked to planned changes; focus on both improvement and maintenance of HSE levels when changes are evaluated and implemented and evaluation of changes individually and in combination.

Furthermore the suggested improvements include design of declaration of confidentiality for employee representatives (AML §8-3); the relationship between goal formulation, activities involved and the company’s own follow-up and measurement of results and structure, completeness and timeframe of the plan preparation; declaration of confidentiality for employee representatives (AML §8-3); the relationship between goal formulation, activities involved and the company’s own follow-up and measurement of results and structure, completeness and timeframe of the plan preparation

Although the transition in Norway’s part of the North Sea passed with no great difficulties, the UK transition is anything but smooth since Repsol and Talisman are currently fighting a legal battle with China’s Sinopec.

More to the point, Sinopec and its subsidiary Addax Petroleum UK have been looking for a payback of Sinopec’s invested sum for its 2012 investment in Addax and Talisman joint company Talisman Sinopec Energy UK (TSEUK). Sinopec last week served Talisman with an arbitration notice seeking around $5.5 billion for the TSEUK investment. Repsol dismissed the allegations as groundless.