This Wednesday an oil exploration platform is scheduled to arrive in the South Atlantic contracted by Argentine state energy company Enarsa, Chilean state oil company Enap Sipetrol international branch and Argentine oil major YPF.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries conference in Vienna opened on Tuesday with a strong call to address the free for all speculation in the energy sector and the vindication that throughout this turbulent period, supply and demand fundamentals have been sound.
Colombia's government owned Petroleum Corporation, ECOPETROL announced the discovery of a promising well in the province of Huila to the southeast of the country with initial tests of 900 barrels of oil per day.
Oil prices have dipped below 106 US dollars as traders predicted that rising US unemployment would lead to consumers cutting back on petrol use. US light, sweet crude fell as low as $105.16 a barrel before recovering to settle down $1.66 at $106.23. Brent crude dropped $2.21 to $104.09.
President Lula da Silva inaugurated this week Brazil's first extraction of oil from deep waters which highlighted techniques to be applied to vast oil fields found even farther offshore and at greater depths.
Oil prices have fallen after weather forecasters said Hurricane Gustav had weakened as it hit the US Gulf of Mexico coast south-west of New Orleans.
With Hurricane Gustav on course to hit the US Gulf of Mexico coast, the damage it does to the region's oil facilities could be a worst case scenario.
Argentine and Chilean government and private oil companies announced Wednesday they would be investing 150 million US dollars to search for hydrocarbons in the South Atlantic.
Uruguay will consider resorting to nuclear energy to meet the growing demand for electricity and cut dependency on fossil fuels, announced President Tabare Vazquez from Israel, the first leg of a tour which will also take him to Switzerland and South Korea.
Argentina and Brazil are scheduled to address the creation of a bi-national nuclear energy agency when the countries two presidents meet next month in Recife, northeast Brazil, reports the Brazilian press.