UANI

“Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A. (CEPSA) leads an industrial group made up of over 11,000 people, whose core activity is the refining of crude oil and marketing of petroleum products.

The company additionally has a strong petrochemicals division that is tightly integrated with the refineries, and is also involved in other energy-related businesses, such as oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas operations and electric power generation and sales.

CEPSA has been in the market for almost 80 years. Thanks to its flexibility and ability to adapt, CEPSA has become one of the leading companies in its sector in Spain. Through the progressive internationalisation of its activities, it also has business interests in Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Panama, Peru and Portugal, and sells its products all over the world” (Company website, “CEPSA – Profile”).

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"Cepsa, the second-largest oil company in Spain (behind Repsol YPF) refines 121,900 barrels of crude oil daily, primarily in three refineries. Its oil exploration and production efforts are focused on Algeria, Colombia, Egypt, Peru, and Spain. It has proved reserves of 172.5 million barrels of oil equivalent. Cepsa's marketing network includes more than 1,800 gas stations in Spain and Portugal. It also produces a range of chemical products (including polyester precursors, phenol, plasticizers, and polypropylene) and has gas and power interests. Spain's TOTAL controls 49% of Cepsa and Abu Dhabi's IPIC, 47%%" (“Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.,” Hoovers, 2010).
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As of April 2010, Cepsa imports 25 thousand barrels of crude oil per day from Iran. (“Iran’s Crude Oil Buyers in Europe, Asia,” Reuters, April 18 2010.)

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“Spain helps Iran in the fields of shipbuilding, oil and gas, power production and fishing, and Iran supplies Spain with mainly oil and petrochemicals.”

“In 2001, Iran exported to Spain $837 million worth of crude oil and various types of petrochemical products, while importing from that country $278 million worth of machinery, power turbines, medicine and chemical products. Trade activities aside, Spain has become a large non-Iranian investor in Iran's fossil energy and petrochemical industries over the last few years. This has reflected particularly in the activities of three major Spanish oil and petrochemical companies in that country. Repsol has invested 2 billion euros (roughly $2 billion) in exploring and extracting Iran's natural gas. The latter has uplifted the status of Spain in the Iranian economy, a result of the Iranians' efforts to reduce their consumption of oil and to switch to natural gas both for economic and environmental reasons.

Another Spanish oil company, Cespa, has been involved in the development of Iran's Cheshmekosh oilfield, while negotiating for its participation in developing certain Iranian offshore oilfields in the Persian Gulf. In the wake of President Khatami's visit to Spain, Cespa and the Spanish government expressed hope to settle disagreements with the Iranian government on the latter during the presidential visit” (Peimani, Hooman, "Spain seeks a bigger share in Iran," Asia Times, November 23, 2002).

Santander is "the third largest bank in the world in terms of profits." In 2008, the Santander Group acquired the US-based Sovereign Bank. (Company Website)

Banco Santander is also part of the Royal Bank of Scotland led consortium that owns ABN AMRO, which reportedly has done business with Iran. (ABN AMRO Company Website)

• "In July 2007, it was reported that Santander “was doing business with Teheran-based Sepah as recently as March [2007]…

  Trading with businesses that are blacklisted for alleged links to terrorism is a serious breach of US law and can have draconian consequences...

  Santander is thought to have opened accounts for Sepah in various European countries and in Teheran.

  Allegations have also been made that Santander had a banking relationship with another Iranian bank that the US is targeting for its alleged links to terrorists.

  Santander said: ‘Neither of these institutions has an open account with Santander.’

  The Spanish bank appears to have ended its relationship with Sepah after March. No details are known about the nature of its contact with the other bank.

  Santander said: ‘Banco Santander is confident that it complies with all relevant banking regulations in the territories in which it operates, and with international requirements placed on banks, including those concerning money-laundering and the financing of terrorism.’

  Sepah, which is owned by the Iranian state, was placed on the US blacklist in January. At the time, Stuart Levey, under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said: ‘Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction.’" (The Daily Telegraph, "Santander Traded with Blacklist Iranian Bank," 7/23/07)

"A spokesman for Repsol, an oil giant based in Spain, said that the company has a joint liquefied natural gas project with Shell in Iran that is in the early planning stages. But, as Western pressure has mounted, the project has not moved forward. The spokesman did not comment on the State Department's investigation into Repsol's possible violations of the Iran Sanctions Act."  From 2000-2009, the company was the recipient of $375.4 million US federal funds.  Their investments in Iran are currently on hold.  They have been listed as a potential violator of the Iran Sanctions Act.  (The New York Times, "Profiting from Iran, and the US," 3/6/2010)

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"Repsol holds the mineral rights to two exploration blocks: Merh and Forooz....These blocks have a total combined area of 14,638 km2...In 2004, Repsol and Shell signed an agreement with the (state) National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), in order to develop the integrated LNG project designated 'Persian LNG'." (Company website, 7/13/09)

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"New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli also announced Tuesday the $110 billion fund would freeze an additional $300 million in seven other companies...The decision comes after two years of reviewing these companies, the potential risk of the investments and, in some cases, humanitarian efforts in these countries. 'We don't expect our investments to benefit regimes that support genocide and terrorism,' said DiNapoli...The fund also plans to monitor and prohibit further investment in ENI (E), Repsol YPF (REP), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), Total SA (TOT), ABB Ltd. (ABB), Alstom (ALO.FR) and Snam Rete Gas (SNMRY). Additionally, it plans to focus on other industries including telecommunications. (Wall Street Journal, "NY Comptroller To Divest $86.2M In State Pension Fund Investments," 6/30/09 and The Office of New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli)

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"William Burns, U.S. Under Secretary of State for political affairs, pointed out that several big energy companies, including Total, Shell, ENI and Repsol, have scaled back their business in Iran over the past few years." (Reuters, "US to review if Statoil violates Iran sanctions law," 7/9/08)

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"Total, Shell and Repsol of Spain are hanging back from signing contracts, which the Iranians are desperate for them to sign, said Simon Henderson, an oil expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy." (Associated Press, "Iran looks to tap key oil field with homegrown crews," 5/11/08)

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"In January [2007], Shell and Spains Repsol signed a preliminary deal with Teheran jointly to develop two phases of South Pars. At the time, Shell said it might be a year away from knowing whether to proceed, a timescale that Shell chief executive Jeroen van de Veer repeated six months later." (The Daily Telegraph, "Shell delays decision on Iran project again," 12/29/07)

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Listed by U.S. Government as doing business in Iran. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, List of Companies Doing Business With State Sponsors Of Terror, Removed from the internet in July of 2007)

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In June 2010, Repsol pulled out of a joint deal with Shell to develop phases 13 and 14 of the South Pars gas field (WSJ).