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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, February 20th 2026 - 16:26 UTC

Energy & Oil

  • Monday, August 31st 2020 - 09:55 UTC

    Argentina preparing to draft an oil exploration round in its extended South Atlantic continental shelf

    Filmus believes current oil companies operating in the Falklands could be tempted to move to the Argentine zone and greater legal certainty

    Oil and fisheries will spearhead Argentina's new efforts in its sovereignty claims over the Falkland Islands, according to Martin Dinatale, an Argentine columnist with good contacts in the foreign ministry and who has followed the Islands dispute for years.

  • Monday, August 31st 2020 - 09:48 UTC

    Argentina determined to promote oil and gas production and exports

    Dario Martinez took office on August 26 and discussed the plans for energy policy with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez

    Argentina’s new energy secretary Dario Martinez plans to promote oil and natural gas production with a view to increasing exports as part of a strategy to pull the economy out of one of its worst crises on record.

  • Monday, August 31st 2020 - 08:31 UTC

    Nuclear generated electricity increases for seventh year running

    Six reactors started up in 2019: four large PWRs commenced operation, one in South Korea, one in Russia and two in China

    Electricity generated from the world’s nuclear reactors increased for the seventh consecutive year in 2019, with electricity output reaching 2657 TWh. This was an increase of 95 TWh on the previous year, and the second-highest ever output, according to Agneta Rising, Director General of World Nuclear Association.

  • Friday, August 28th 2020 - 08:24 UTC

    Rockhopper Exploration sells Ireland's United Oil stake for €3.4m

    “We are delighted to have attracted such strong support from institutional and private investors at a time of relative uncertainty within our sector,” said United CEO Brian Larkin.

    Rockhopper Exploration has sold its 18.3% stake in Ireland-based United Oil & Gas for US$ 4m (€3.4m). The deal announced tonight concludes United’s reverse takeover earlier this year of Rockhopper’s Egyptian subsidiary and its operations in the Abu Sennan oil field for US$ 15.5m (€13m).

  • Thursday, August 27th 2020 - 09:10 UTC

    Argentina's shale deposits will take 12/18 months to recover pre Covid-19 activity

    Shale-rich Neuquen saw an increase in oil production in July. Crude output rose by 10%, on the year, to 155,400 b/d, according to the provincial government

    Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale patch will take 12-18 months to resume pre-Covid-19 activity because of lagging demand, according to Alejandro Monteiro, energy minister of Neuquen province.

  • Thursday, August 27th 2020 - 09:09 UTC

    Is Argentina’s Shale Too Expensive To Drill?

    State-controlled YPF, Argentina's top producer, has said it has 71 shale oil wells and 10 shale gas wells in Neuquen that have been drilled but not completed.

    By Irina Slav, Oilprice.com – It is one of the most abundant shale plays in the world, with oil reserves of up to 16 billion barrels and gas reserves of 308 trillion cubic meters—resources that could guarantee a country’s energy independence and turn it into a relevant international supplier of oil and gas. But only if the price is right.

  • Friday, August 21st 2020 - 09:40 UTC

    Oil spill from refinery triggers an environmental disaster along the Venezuelan coastline

    Independent researchers and lawmakers have said the spill likely originated from the El Palito oil refinery in nearby Carabobo state, citing satellite images

    A strip of Venezuela's western coastline boasting pristine beaches and fragile ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs could take more than half a century to fully recover from the environmental impacts of a recent oil spill, a researcher said.

  • Thursday, August 20th 2020 - 10:05 UTC

    Oil industry's recovery is incomplete but sustainable

    In some major oil production nations, supply is no longer as far ahead of demand as it was a few months ago

    Throughout the summer, oil’s recovery from its devastating crash has looked somewhat dubious. While the price of crude rebounded somewhat, it did not wholly regain its pre-pandemic strength. And while the nations of OPEC+ put measures in place to cut production and close the gap between supply and demand, certain nations involved hinted at the reluctance to keep cuts in place. These factors, coupled with the lingering potential of fresh “waves” of the coronavirus, have kept us from being overly optimistic about the state of oil.

  • Wednesday, August 19th 2020 - 09:40 UTC

    Chile's GDP plunged 14,1% in the second quarter; mining the only positive sector

    The result is “the consequence of the health emergency associated with COVID-19, which has had an impact on people's mobility and the normal functioning of production establishments”

    Chile's gross domestic product (GDP) plunged 14.1% in the second quarter, the Central Bank said on Tuesday, after the coronavirus pandemic mauled economic activity with the exception of the vital mining sector. Among the worst-hit sectors were manufacturing, construction and the hotel and restaurant sector. In the first quarter, the Chilean GDP had increased slightly by 0.2%.

  • Tuesday, August 18th 2020 - 15:50 UTC

    Falkland Islands and oil companies new approach to “stranded assets”

    The discovery a decade ago of as much as 1,7 billion barrels of crude offshore the Falklands anticipated the next frontier

    An article in World Oil by Laura Hurst refers to the term “stranded assets” and mentions the case of the Falkland Islands oil industry: the discovery a decade ago of as much as 1,7 billion barrels of crude offshore the British Overseas Territory, and rather than the next frontier, the project to extract energy risks being added to a list of what companies call “stranded assets” that could cost them huge sums to mothball.