MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras interested in exploring the River Plate

Brazil's oil company Petrobras is interested in exploring for hydrocarbons in Uruguay's sea platform and next month will be signing a memorandum understanding with Uruguay's oil company Ancap.

"After five months of negotiations we've reached a framework agreement where Petrobras expresses its interest in prospecting for oil in Uruguay's continental platform", said Daniel Martinez, Ancap president.

Uruguay is totally dependent on oil and gas imports, and previous exploration attempts by international companies proved commercially unviable.

In the seventies California based Chevron drilled several off shore exploratory vessels in the River Plate, and lately Ancap signed with French government assistance several seismic surveying agreements.

The possibility of revamping Uruguay's only oil refinery is also addressed in the Petrobras understanding.

Besides Petrobras, Ancap has close relations with Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, which is supplying oil with long term financing.

PDVSA has shown an interest in operating in the Mercosur region from Uruguay