MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nine companies submit 19 bids to explore for oil offshore Uruguay

Raul Sendic, president of the Ancap board

Nine oil and gas companies have submitted 19 bids to explore for hydrocarbons off the coast of Uruguay, the state energy company Ancap said on Thursday.

The discovery of massive deep-water reserves off Brazil's Atlantic coast has encouraged neighbouring Uruguay to look for energy resources along its own coastline in hopes of reducing its dependence on imports.

The foreign companies submitted a total of 19 bids for eight of the 15 blocks offered for exploration, said Raul Sendic, president of Ancap.

”This is a really historic event, it points to an enormous amount of investment on the (continental) platform over the coming years,“ he said.

”The offers have focused on the areas closest to the Pelotas basin, which is the area near the Brazilian border,” he added.

The bids were made by Britain's BP and the BG Group, France's Total's, Shell, Tullow Oil Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp. Consortiums made up of Spain's Cepsa, Murphy and Argentina's YPF also made offers.

Ancap is due to announce the results of the bidding round on Friday.

Ancap which has the oil and gas monopoly imports some 900.000 barrels of crude every 25 days from Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria, Ecuador, Russia and South Africa for refining locally.

Uruguay does not normally import refined fuels but a shutdown at its sole refinery and a drought has forced it to buy in diesel, fuel oil and gasoline.