MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay opens the River Plate for oil and gas exploration

Leading oil companies from Brazil, Spain, Russia, UK and United States are participating of the three days “Uruguay Round” collecting data on oil and gas exploration prospects off shore Uruguay in the River Plate.

The round was inaugurated Monday by President Tabare Vazquez with Economy minister Alvaro García, Industry and Energy minister Daniel Martinez and Raul Sendic head of the Uruguayan hydrocarbons corporation, Ancap, making the presentations on the different fields involved. Garcia underlined Uruguay's political stability, long term economic policies, balanced budget and promotion of foreign investment. Martinez and Sendic supplied some of the data from the recent seismic survey of several blocks in the River Plate with promising prospects of gas and possibly oil deposits. Some of the corporations which have shown an interest have already purchased information on previous exploration operations both offshore and on land Uruguay. However Minister Martinez although optimistic about the seismic data warned that "reality tells us that until wells are effectively drilled there's no way of anticipating if the reservoirs are commercially and technologically exploitable". And before that stage is reached "eight to nine years could have elapsed" he added. According to the timetable worked out the by Uruguayan authorities the first tender for exploration of eleven of the blocks will take place next June 2009. "Current technology enables to locate more information on natural gas than oil", said Martinez and "the seismic survey of several blocks clearly indicates that possibility". Much of Uruguay's optimism is based on the fact that neighbouring Brazil has been particularly successful in locating oil and gas deposits along its long southern coast basin which as some point connects with Uruguay's sedimentary basin extending north. The eleven blocks cover areas ranging from 4.000 to 8.000 square kilometres and at depths of 1.000 to 3.000 metres, but "the most interesting blocks are to the east of Punta del Este". Martinez revealed that since it's a long term project and "of benefit for the whole country", a consensus on energy policies was reached with the political system and business community "to ensure full support for this effort". Some of the companies are Petrobras, Repsol-Ypf, PDVSA, Shell Oil and Russia's Gazprom. The seismic survey was carried out by the Norway-UK company Wavefields which has a vast expertise in the South Atlantic.