MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay to make oil potencial presentation in Rome

Uruguay hopes to attract the interest of global oil corporations when it makes a first tentative presentation of recent seismic survey data from its continental shelf next Thursday at the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers meeting in Rome.

"Our first objective is to encourage oil corporations to participate in the so called Uruguay round which is planned for next December in Montevideo", said Uruguayan government owned oil corporation, ANCAP president Raul Sendic. The data Uruguay is offering was collected by the seismic surveying vessel M/V Bergen Surveyor belonging to the Norwegian Wavefiled compay that has a long experience in the South Atlantic. "We will advance some of the primary results of the 10.000 kilometers surveying plus providing information on the legal and economic aspects of the Uruguayan proposal", added Sendic who is participating of EAGE 2008 with two top officials from Ancap. However the Uruguayan delegation main interest is to encourage companies to be present at the December presentation in Montevideo, "we would like to see a considerable number of interested parties since any oil exploration demand a lot of expertise, investment and clear rules of the game". Besides the relatively brief presentation and explaining how things are evolving in Uruguay "we have scheduled several bilateral contacts with specific corporations which are participating at the EAGE 2008" indicated Sendic. In a recent meeting with the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Montevideo Industry and Energy minister Daniel Martinez revealed he was optimistic about the possibilities of finding hydrocarbons in the continental shelf. "We've detected a big gas bubble, which in oil industry terms could mean a lot or nothing, since there are no guarantees but we have the right to expectations. If all is positive and works out as planned we should have hydrocarbons in seven or eight years' time", said an enthusiastic Martinez. Uruguay which must import all of its crude consumption has made several attempts to look for oil since 1912, when the Geology and Drilling Institute was first founded. Later in 1932 the government owned oil monopoly was started and Ancap began drilling in the north of the country. One of the first drillings revealed what later proved to be one of South America's largest aquifers, which extends to Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. In 1976 Chevron was contracted for oil and gas exploration off shore but with no commercial volume results.