Repsol Could Drill off Canary Islands in October

Spanish oil company Repsol could begin prospecting for its $7-billion oil exploration project off the Canary Islands in October, Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria said on Tuesday.

Spain's Supreme Court last month rejected environmental appeals against 2012 government permits granted for oil exploration off the coasts of the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

"We should be thinking end of October," Soria told Spanish radio channel SER.

His ministry would give the final authorization for prospecting next week and Repsol has said it would start three months later, said Soria. (Reporting By Jose Elias Rodriguez;