MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Paraguay begins drilling for oil in the Chaco next December
President Franco was briefed on the coming operations Paraguay will begin exploring for hydrocarbons in the Chaco region, heartland of South America next 8 December, said oil consultant Mario Garnero after meeting on Tuesday with President Federico Franco.
Garnero from international consultants Brasilinvest said that initial investment will be in the range of 200 million dollars “and depending on the feasibility of moving to the exploitation stage, we will be talking of other figures”
The consultant met with President Franco Tuesday afternoon at the Executive palace where he briefed the head of government on the coming exploration and drilling, and the probabilities of finding hydrocarbons in commercial volumes.
“This is a very important project for the South American continent”, underlined Garnero who said that Brasilinvest and other Brazilian financial groups are interested in the exploration
However US company Crescent Global Oil will be in charge of the drilling operations that are scheduled to take several months. Seismic and air surveying have indicated the existence of an encouraging geology.
In the 1930s Paraguay and neighbouring Bolivia went to war over vast tracks of the Chaco believing there were huge deposits of oil. Paraguay finally was the victor taking some of the disputed land but both countries ended bankrupt and no oil was found with the existing technology of that time.
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Read all commentsI guess Paraguay has notable oil/gas reserves
Oct 17th, 2012 - 09:38 am 0but
does need to have good relations in Mercosur to export.
I think if Paraguay offers oil at a cheap price to its Mercosur members, it will be able to sell it just fine. But let's hope that there is no oil to be found because oil can also be the downfall of many countries. Dictators love it. Also the foreign pressures of having such a resource can be very problematic.
Oct 17th, 2012 - 11:06 am 0@1 Why would it need good relations with a bunch of moronic dictators? You do understand that international law says that a landlocked country has to have access to the sea, don't you? So Paraguay could have a pipeline and an oil terminal on the Pacific coast.
Oct 17th, 2012 - 12:08 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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