MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine offshore prospective oil drilling makes official start

If no hydrocarbons are found, the exploratory well is to be sealed and plugged (Pic Equinor)

Argentina's Energy Secretariat Monday declared the official beginning of the so-called Argerich Project, which consists of the installation of an exploratory well 300 kilometers off the coast of Mar del Plata, marking the commencement of offshore oil exploration in the Atlantic Ocean.

The national Secretariat of Energy announced that the Argerich Project, presented by , the company in charge of oil exploration off the coast of Mar del Plata, will officially begin.

According to Secretariat Resolution 19/2022, the company Equinor will start drilling an exploratory well in the North Argentine Basin 300 kilometers off the coast of Mar del Plata to establish the existence of hydrocarbons in the area, it was explained.

Equinor “must strictly comply with the terms of the Environmental Management Plan and its extensions, which is part of the Environmental Impact Study, as well as any other requirement that this authority may deem necessary,” the Economy Ministry department said.

Monitoring the Environmental Management Plan will be the National Directorate of Environmental Assessment under the Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation of the Ministry of Environment, the authorities also pointed out.

“In the northern Argentine basin, more specifically in the CAN_100 block, the Argerich Project is located, the first offshore exploration well in ultra deep waters in Argentina, which aims at exploring 15,000 km2 more than 300 km off the coast of Buenos Aires and with a depth of 1,527 meters to the seabed,” the publication in the Official Gazette went on.

If no hydrocarbons are found, the exploratory well is to be sealed and plugged, it was explained. But “if hydrocarbons are found, the next stage would be entered, which is to establish the limits of the reservoir with wells designed to test the fluid to be produced. It is only in a third stage when the production wells would be drilled,” the Scretariat also said.