The day after the measure was announced, BBVA slid 6.5 percent in Madrid and Repsol YPF SA, Spain's biggest oil producer, fell 13 percent.

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Scarabeo 9 is a semi-submersible drilling vessel recently built by Yantai Raffles, which will be on contract by Repsol YPF for deepwater exploratory drilling off Cuba.

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First to use it will be the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which plans to drill an exploratory well around 100km (62 miles) from the Florida Keys.

BBC: The Scarabeo 9 rig