
Spanish oil company Repsol anounced this week the discovery of traces of hydrocarbons at a deepwater well being drilled off the Brazilian coast. In an official statement Repsol said the well was completed in Block BM-S-48, located in the Santos Basin off the coast of the south-eastern state of Sao Paulo.

While oil prices ended this week's trading in the range of 35 US dollars the barrel, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has cut its estimates on world oil demand and for the first time since 1982-1983, expects two consecutive years of contracting demand for crude oil.

Dr Colin Phipps, long linked to the Falkland Islands and one of the driving forces behind the promising frontier oil industry passed away in London on January 10.

A Chilean-Peruvian consortium plans to invest 650 million USD in a project to produce ammonium and ammonium nitrate from natural gas, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Wednesday.

The Ecuadorian government has decided to suspend oil production by Italy's Agip and France's Perenco, both of which operate in the Amazon region, to comply with new OPEC cuts.

Brazil will temporarily shut down power plants fired by natural gas from Bolivia and will reduce imports of the Bolivian fuel through the end of April, announced Mines and Energy mister Edison Lobao.

Brazilian state oil company Petrobras exported in December an average of 620,000 barrels of crude per day, establishing a new record.

Six companies to date have purchased data packages for Uruguay's first offshore Exploration and Production round, mining and energy minister Daniel Martínez said after making a presentation at an energy conference in Santiago de Chile.

Chile's Lower House unanimously approved this week the naming of a special committee to investigate the financial performance of government owned hydrocarbons corporation ENAP, that suffered huge losses in 2008, and gas exploration projects in Tierra del Fuego which have been described as commercially non viable.

Argentina appointed a supervisor to help oversee pipeline operator Transportadora de Gas del Norte SA, TGN, after the company said it will default on 22.1 million US dollars debt, Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido announced Monday.