Uruguay aims to benefit from frontier fever
South American nation emerges as potentially promising new upstream province
Uruguay has awarded licenses for three more offshore blocks. And the country is hoping to benefit from comparisons of its offshore geology to rocks that have yielded recent finds in Namibia. Uruguayan state-owned oil company Ancap awarded two offshore blocks to Shell. The major's awards comprise the shallow-water OFF-2 and the deepwater OFF-7 blocks. Shell has an initial four-year exploration period and has committed to securing fresh 3D seismic surveys and resource evaluations. Ancap also awarded the deep-water block OFF-6 to US independent Apache. The award is also for an initial four-year period, but Apache has committed to more work than Shell, including the drilling of an exploratory w

Also in this section
14 March 2025
Gas production slumped to an eight-year low in 2024, but new discoveries and partnership with Cyprus paint a more positive outlook
13 March 2025
Gas will become a more important part of the energy mix longer-term, raising the alarm for much-need investment as supply struggles to keep up with demand
13 March 2025
The spectre of Saudi Arabia’s 2020 market share strategy haunts a suffering OPEC+ as Trump upends the energy world
12 March 2025
Petronas-Eni eyes joint venture to prioritise key gas developments, with huge opportunities for growth in Indonesia and a steady Malaysia portfolio