MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay surveying the Rive Plate for hydrocarbons

Punta del Este basin area under survey

In six months time Uruguay will have an idea if there are hydrocarbons in the River Plate Punta del Este basin, and based on this data move into the exploratory phase, announced Wednesday the chairman of the country's government managed oil company Ancap.

Daniel Martinez made the announcement after visiting in Montevideo port the Norwegian flagged vessel MV "Bergen Surveyor"belonging to Wavefield Inseis ASA, which has been contracted for a 2D seismic surveying of the Punta del Este basin that stands 200 kilometers offshore the renowned Atlantic seaside resort. Before surveying in the River Plate, MV Bergen Surveyorcompleted in the Falkland Islands a 10.000 km 2D seismic survey contract in the South and East Falkland Basins. So far "Bergen Surveyor"has "combed" and surveyed crisscrossing 3.700 kilometers of a total 7.000 kilometers in search of gas and/or oil deposits which should be finished by the end of the year. The vessel tows a plus 8.000 meters streamer and a powerful airgun source that allows for an improved imaging of both the shallower and deeper targets. Marine gravity and magnetic data is also recorded during the survey. In the first quarter of next year the data collected will be analyzed by the Norwegian company and some of the results made public at a hydrocarbons prospecting forum in United States. A more in depth analysis and assessment of the data will take place at the Brazilian University of Ouro Preto, which has a department of experts that work almost exclusively for Brazil's oil corporation and leader in offshore exploration Petrobras. The task will be done in the framework of a Petrobras/Ancap cooperation agreement. If the results of the analyzed data are encouraging, with good chances of finding gas or oil in commercial volumes, Ancap will move to a second phase that is the 3D seismic survey of the area, which should then be followed by exploratory drilling. This will demand substantial investments and most probably Uruguay will appeal to some risk sharing association with major world oil corporations. According to the Norwegian company the Punta del Este basin is a Mesozoic extensional basin located in a regional trend which includes the productive basins of San Jorge in Argentina and Campos in Brazil. Four stages are clearly identified in the evolution of the basin: pre-rift, synrift, sag and passive margin. More than 5,000 m of sedimentary sequences are present in this basin and water depths are in a range from moderate to ultra-deep. Thick sections in the only two wells drilled in the Punta del Este basin, Gaviotín-1 and Lobo-1, (dating back to 1976) show the presence of fluid inclusions with oil in the Neocomian section and gas in the Aptian-Albian interval (Tavella and Wrigth, 1996). Geologists from Ancap have identified several plays for the entrapment of hydrocarbons which remain to be detailed with new seismic data using far offset seismic parameters.