On December 22, Spain’s Repsol announced an agreement signed with Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy to buy nearly 363,636 net acres in the Mississippi Lime play. Repsol will invest $1 billion in the unconventional resource and will incorporate reserves and production from 2012.

Repsol will participate with a 16% and 25% stake respectively in two areas within the Mississippian Lime deposit, which spans the states of Oklahoma and Kansas. Repsol’s share of production is expected to reach a peak of 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2019.

According to the agreement, Repsol anticipates drilling more than 200 horizontal wells during 2012 and exceed 1,000 wells by 2014, in a fractured carbonate-rich area of 6,900 km². Repsol will pay $250 million in cash at closing and the remainder in the form of a drilling carry, expected to be completed in three years, according to current development expectations.

The deal is part of Repsol’s strategy to diversify its portfolio into OECD countries. The company is developing in the United States various key projects contained in its Horizon 2014 strategic plan, including exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Repsol also has activities in Alaska, and an LNG import terminal on the Canadian-US border.