The Argentine YPF, the American APA Corp and the British Shell and Challenger Energy Group (CEG) won the Ancap tender.
Ancap awarded the seven offshore oil and gas exploration licenses to four oil companies, demonstrating the industry’s interest in the Uruguayan coast, after the discoveries of basins in Namibia, on the opposite side of Atlantic Ocean.
Among the winners of the licenses are Argentina YPF, the American APA Corp and the British Shell and Challenger Energy Group (CEG), as confirmed to AFP by the Energy Transition manager of Ancap, Santiago Ferro, who highlighted that “there is a lot of interest from the oil industry in exploring in Uruguay”, after the findings in the African country.
Although no discovery has yet been made in the country, what happened in Namibia enhances the chances of success. This is how he defined it Ferro, who expressed that “if before there was a 10% chance of success in explorations, now we can think of 25%.”
The leader highlighted that “for the first time, all the blocks delimited by Ancap and the Ministry of energy “They were awarded.” Regarding the link with the African country, he explained that “150 million years ago, before the breakup of Gondwana occurred, Uruguay and Namibia were the same geographical location, so several of the elements of the petroleum system are inferred to be present in the offshore basins of Uruguay”.
An investment of 127 million dollars
From Ancap They indicated that the level of investment committed is 127 million dollars, but the state company estimates a disbursement close to 200 million, “at the entire risk of the proposing companies,” as stated in a document.
Along these lines, it was indicated that within the framework of the bidding round opened in 2019, the seven available offshore blocks have already been awarded, measuring an average of 15,000 square kilometers each and located between 100 and 300 kilometers from the coast.
In addition to the four firms that were winners, the Uruguayan coasts attracted the interest of the Brazilian company Petrobras, the french Total and the British British Petroleum (BP), British Gas (BG) and Tullow Oil, among other.
Source: Ambito
