MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

ANCAP contracts 50.000 km areo-magnetic survey of the Uruguayan offshore

The acquisition and processing is estimated to take six months

Uruguay government owned oil company ANCAP contracted the international company Fugro for the provision of geophysical services covering a complete aero-magnetic survey of the River Plate area and Atlantic Ocean where Uruguay is about to launch a hydrocarbons exploratory round.

The area is identified as the Pelotas, Punta del Este and Oriental del Plata offshore basins and the task of acquisition and processing of the aero magnetic data will last around six months.

The contract is a multi-client type one, which means costs and risks generated by the survey, will be covered by Fugro that then will have exclusive rights for licensing the data to the oil companies interested in the Uruguay Round II bid for the offshore E&P on early 2012.

The company will commence the survey when obtained enough pre-funding from oil companies to afford the budget. The agreement covers the acquisition, processing and interpretation of 50.000 linear Km of high resolution magnetic data of the Uruguayan offshore.

The obtained aeromagnetic data will allow having better understanding of the tectonic evolution, as well as identifying the structural elements for the definition of play concepts in these rift basins.

ANCAP already holds multi-client agreements with CGG Veritas for near 12.000 Km of 2D seismic data (acquired from 2002 to 2008), and has signed an agreement with ION/GXT for the acquisition, processing and interpretation of seismic data offshore, the so-called UruguaySPAN (3.000 to 3.500 km of regional data that will link the Uruguayan basins with the neighboring offshore basins in Brazil and Argentina).

At the same time, in the next weeks ANCAP is going to announce the winner of a tender for acquisition of exclusive regional and infill 2D seismic data (between 5.600 km and 7.000 km of regional and infill data).

In addition, ANCAP is negotiating to arrive at agreements for the identification of oil seeps, the analysis of samples of the offshore wells for fluid inclusions stratigraphy, petroleum geology evaluation, as well as other non-exclusive projects with international service companies.

All this huge amount of information will be useful to enhance the knowledge of the offshore basins, as well as identifying leads and prospects in the Uruguay offshore, and therefore, will be particularly interesting and helpful for the oil companies that are evaluating the exploration opportunities in Uruguay.

The Uruguay Round II is based on the promising Uruguay Round 2009 that opened in Uruguay a new industrial area for development. In 2009 ANCAP successfully launched the Uruguay Round 2009, for the awarding of exploration and exploitation areas offshore Uruguay, signing two contracts for two areas with a consortium formed by Petrobras, YPF and Galp.

Fugro N.V. is a Dutch multinational company headquartered in Leidschendam. The current president is K.S. Wester. In 2009, Fugro earned over two billion Euros in revenue and is traded on the Euronext Exchange

Fugro's mission is to be “the world's leading service provider for the collection and interpretation of data relating to the earth's surface and sub-surface and for associated services and advice in support of infrastructure development on land, along the coast and on the seabed”.