Wednesday, December 23rd 2009 - 15:50 UTC

YPF unveils five year plan to explore for oil and gas in the Falklands basin

Argentina's YPF, the local unit of Spanish oil major Repsol, said on Tuesday it would explore for oil and natural gas in the Falkland/Malvinas Islands basin as part of a five-year exploration program.

YPF Chief Executive Sebastian Eskenazi

YPF, Argentina's biggest energy company, will spend about 100 million US dollars for the exploration work in the South Atlantic, leading a consortium also involving Argentina's Pan American Energy and Brazil's Petrobras.

“We will invest all the resources necessary to explore the whole of the country and find out its full potential in terms of oil and natural gas reserves” Chief Executive Sebastian Eskenazi said in a presentation. “We’re going to define the map of remaining exploration opportunities in Argentina”, he added.

He did not put a figure on the planned investment in exploration up through 2015 but he said the firm had already earmarked some 1.61 billion USD for investment on refining and logistics over the next three years.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the British-controlled Falkland Islands and the two countries fought a brief war in the remote archipelago in 1982, following Argentina’s invasion of the Islands.

“This is a frontier exploration project, with high potential as well as high geological risk in an area with water depths of 500 meters” a company statement said. It said the exploration work would take place some 289 kilometres from the coast of Patagonia, but gave no further details.

Earlier this year, Britain and Argentina lodged claim to a large swath of South Atlantic seabed around the remote islands, setting the stage for a battle for control of potentially rich oil and gas reserves.

YPF plans also involve mapping out the 250 unassigned exploration blocks remaining in Argentina. Of those, 135 are offshore. While those investment plans haven't been defined in the free blocks, each site will be mapped out using two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging or through exploratory drilling, as appropriate, said an YPF spokesperson. YPF is also going to focus on increasing its gas-recovery rates.

“Our view is to increase the recovery factor from the current 20% to 25% in 10 years...notably increasing the country's reserves,” Eskenazi said in the release.

In November, YPF said that it had added 109 million barrels of oil equivalent, or BOE, to its proven oil and gas reserves in the first nine months of 2009. Over the three years running up until late 2009, YPF incorporated about 300 million BOE to its proven reserves, a company spokesman said in November.

17 comments Feed

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1 nitrojuan (#) Dec 24th, 2009 - 05:59 am Report abuse
Merry Christmas
2 Nicholas (#) Dec 24th, 2009 - 03:07 pm Report abuse
and a happy new year.
3 welkin (#) Dec 25th, 2009 - 07:41 am Report abuse
in the 90´s we tried to seduce kelpers, that didn´t work.
perhaps in 10´s we will seduce stock holders.
4 nitrojuan (#) Dec 26th, 2009 - 01:39 am Report abuse
Welkin in the 90's Menem & Di Tella have tried to seduce primate kelpers, in the 2000's Kirchner have tried to asphyxiate less primate kelpers with bans, in the 10' with PRO party and the returns of Argentina in the inteligent diplomacy world, we will recover our islands.
5 Khh (#) Dec 26th, 2009 - 06:03 am Report abuse
How much do you want to bet on that nitrojuan???
It ain't going to happen.
6 jorge (#) Dec 26th, 2009 - 05:39 pm Report abuse
Nitrojuan, PRO are just traitors. Macri would give away the island. Macri like menem in the past would suck american president's d**k. I really hope PRO never win. Kirchner is crap, but a crap better than macri ( De Narvaez, Cobos, Carrio, etc.). Can you picture in your mind having posse as educational minister?. The guy who hates rock,plays down women intelligence and supported the dictatorship?
We will recover the islands in 50 or 100 years when the current retarded bennys (not all of them) have died. Then, The former UK will negotiate. What I don't know is if we will have to negotiate with england, ireland or wales!. May be the scotish people. UK is following the URSS footsteps.
Anyway, time is on our side, so don't bother nitro! They can't hurt us more than they did. Time to speak to malvinas people will come one day, meanwhile keep ignoring the monkys, its monky goverment and all the british circus around it.
7 nitrojuan (#) Dec 28th, 2009 - 10:18 am Report abuse
Jorge, in the deep of your heart, do you really think that kelpers will evolve any time to sit in a table and to talk about sovereignty and free trade? I don´t believe that they evolve at some time for it (As professional of the relations and international trade I would like to travel to Stanley and test it, but I will return very sad to Ushuaia.), UK prefer to have ignoramuses kelpers that could not negotiate anything, that they continue depending militarily on them, creating fears and a bad image of Argentina. I believe that we are going to have UK for long time, but the problem isnt UK like a country, the problem is the Colony System that in the XXI century persists with another name.
For internal matters I dont prefer to talk it in Mercopress, maybe the forus of LN or Clarin are better.
8 jorge (#) Dec 28th, 2009 - 09:16 pm Report abuse
I understand what you mean nitro, but I think it is not for them to decide in the long run. I ttruly believe we need to focus in our very internal matters( economics, politics) to be a better country like Brazil and then all the things come by itself. We can't be weak with this people, they have to see we are serious. UK does not respect us now, but if we are like Brazil in the long run they will and their “falklands” will become a pain in the ass.
Time will speak.
Saludos
9 nitrojuan (#) Dec 29th, 2009 - 08:14 am Report abuse
Khh, maybe you are British, you can bet your mother.
10 khh (#) Dec 29th, 2009 - 09:43 am Report abuse
Listen dickheads if you clown had not have invaded the Falklands in 82 it would be yours by now, sad but probaly a fact.
Minster Nicholase Ridley visited the Islands in 1980 to discuss sovereignty with the Islanders, Britain was basicaly pulling out of the South Atlantic, then you John Wayne wanabees came storming in with one hand tied around your balls. The Islanders were not even classed as British nationals back in 81 if they did not have a parent or grandparant born in the UK.
So as far as trusting goverments go, well the door can swing both ways. it is just that yours swings a lot faster.
goodnight ladies.
11 nitrojuan (#) Dec 29th, 2009 - 11:17 am Report abuse
khh, jajajaja another brit joke please
12 Carl (#) Dec 29th, 2009 - 09:29 pm Report abuse
khh, I wouldn't worry too much about what the explosive Argentine and his trog friend says.

Given the current arms race, many predict that current disputes in South America will blow up within the next 5 to 10 years. Brazil and Chile are rearming and buying new weapons systems at an incredible rate, and then there's the Chavez factor.

In the future we won't be dealing with Argentina, as it will have become a province of Chile.
13 jorge (#) Dec 30th, 2009 - 01:55 am Report abuse
Nitro, the khh comment is the real proof that the islands are not british. I don't know any nation in the whole world that strongly believes in its sovereignty in those islands and at the same time thinks about giving them up to another country just because they want to withdraw of some region. They always knew they weren't the owners of those islands. The other big lie is that British care islander wishes. If britain respected the wishes of islanders, why they prevented them from having the british citizenship? What were the status of that people without british citizenship at the time? They were treated like animals by the very british! and the worse thing is they are proud about what UK has done to them! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!
I know there are some islanders that would agree with me even when they don't comment here!

Happy new year Nitro and all the rest!
14 Carl (#) Dec 30th, 2009 - 10:11 pm Report abuse
Jorge, there's probably an element of truth that the islanders are suspicous of UK motives, but I can gaurantee they are even more suspicious of Argentine motives.

An island way of life is quite distinct, and most islanders all over the world dislike “mainlanders” dictating what they should or shouldn't be doing.

I imagine the thinking behind some Falklanders' wishing to stay allied with the UK is in line with this idiom , 'better the devil you know than the devil you don't'.
15 Islander (#) Dec 31st, 2009 - 05:49 am Report abuse
Folks, the malvinas basin is north west of the Islands and outside our zone - its your area anyway!
1982 - quite correct, if impatient galtieri had waited another year or so we would have been forced into his hands like a rotten apple! Reallly there could be a monument to him at the end of the airport runway here -“thankyou general - your stupidity cost 1000 lives - but it saved the islands for good”
British Citizenship - UK was scared of 12 million Chinese possibly wanting to flee HongKong before the lease expired and they became part of Communist China. There was a general international “shrinkage” going on in UK which started late 1960s - it came to an abrupt halt when UK woke up in April 1982 to the fact that there are some nasty guys around who you actually have to stand up against . Since then policy has changed - Bosnia, Int Terrorism etc. I wont mention Iraq (not many were in favour of Iraq 2nd -a Bush/Blair c----up).Iraq 1st was a fair one though. Yes Jorge you are right - the way UK treated us prior to 1982 was pretty poor - but when the chips came down Britain showed the world what she really stands for- People,s rights to choose their own form of Government.
16 nitrojuan (#) Dec 31st, 2009 - 06:40 pm Report abuse
Islander, happy new year
17 Islander (#) Jan 01st, 2010 - 07:17 am Report abuse
Nitrojuan,
Happy New Year likewise.

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