Argentina's YPF and Chile's Enap Sipetrol announced a joint project to expand the production of natural gas and crude from the offshore Magallanes Deposits, (PIAM), to the east of Magellan Strait Reserve. Representatives from Tierra del Fuego province and Magallanes Region, and from the two companies, attended the announcement ceremony.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Glauconitica zone of Chile's southernmost Magallanes region holds nearly 8.3 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable, unconventional tight gas, or nearly double Chile's production of that fossil fuel over the past 70 years.
The government of Chile will be selling energy-short Argentina 5.5 million cubic feet of natural gas a day starting in May, providing also 200 MW of electricity through the interconnection system between both countries. Chile also committed to invest 200 million dollars in the Incremental Project of the Magallanes Area to boost hydrocarbon production.
Chile's government petroleum company, ENAP, announced that based on the production success of its Arenal block in the extreme south of the country, it has reached a natural gas supply agreement with Methanex, the Canadian methanol plant next to Punta Arenas which is one of the region's leading industries.
Chile's petroleum corporation, ENAP, is planning to drill 55 non conventional new wells in Tierra del Fuego beginning September until the end of 2015, with the purpose of increasing the current production from 450.000 cubic meters per day to a million cubic meters of 'tight' gas.
Oil and gas explorer GeoPark expects to end the year having drilled 35 wells in Chilean Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego, which must be added to the 560 million dollars the company has invested in the region since it began operations in 2006, said the company in an economic impact report presented by consultants Gemines.
Chile's state-owned oil and gas company ENAP successfully put into production the well Paraguaya 2 at Intracampos Block (100% ENAP) in Tierra del Fuego, with an initial flow rate of 160 cubic meters per day of oil, equivalent to 1,006 barrels.