MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

YPF begins next South Atlantic drilling round in Malvinas basin

Apparently no oil in commercial volumes was found in the first wells drilled off Comodoro Rivadavia.

In the coming two weeks the Spanish-Argentine YPF energy corporation should have concluded its first round of seven exploratory wells in the South Atlantic, and towards the end of the year, or beginning of 2010, will start drilling in deeper waters in the Malvinas basin, according to company sources.

Drilling in relatively shallow waters, in the range of 100 metres, the huge oil rig Ocean Sceptre, with its 15.000 tons of steel and several flights has been working round the clock at a daily cost of over half a million US dollars since last October.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was present at the official launching of activities in the oil rig which includes three wells in an area off the Magellan strait and another four in the San Jorge Gulf off Comodoro Rivadavia.

“We can’t discard the presence of oil in the area, but we have no immediate further plans for extraction”, admitted Victor Pelayes, head of YPF’s Exploration Department. Of the seven wells drilled, “we found oil in one of them but not in commercial volumes. Anyhow geologists will continue to analyze extracted material for a more in depth assessment, and we still have to finish drilling the last well”.

So far, 600 metres have been drilled in the seventh and last well and the target is just over 2.000 metres. In another two/three weeks time the 360 people working on several shifts will have ended the first exploratory round. Ocean Sceptre belonging to Diamond Offshore apparently will be returned to Houston. The initial phase of the Aurora project costing over 150 million US dollars will have then officially ended.

The next stage in far deeper waters in the Malvinas basin needs of another rig and other support vessels and more sophisticated logistics. A more appropriate platform apparently has been contracted and sometime in the next six to nine months will be operating and drilling in the South Atlantic.

Another basin to be drilled is Colorada Marina, offshore Mar del Plata and further north. YPF non official sources estimate that Malvinas and Colorado basins could hold anywhere from 400 million to 2 billion barrels of hydrocarbons. Investments costs for this new exploratory round are estimated by YPF in over 336 million US dollars.