The Secretary of Energydirected by Flavia Royón, extended for two years the offshore exploration period granted to the Tullow, Pluspetrol and Wintershall companies in two areas of the West Malvinas Basin, on the Fuegian coast of the Argentine Sea.
The measure was ordered through resolutions 765/2022 and 766/2022, published this Monday in the Official Gazette, since the award had been resolved on May 17, 2019, within the framework of the Offshore International Public Tender, in which permits were obtained in 18 areas of three basins with a total investment of USD 724 million, and was extended in response to the difficulties of transferring personnel and equipment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the case of the area called MLO114, the offer from Tullow Argentina Limited Sucursal Argentina, Pluspetrol SA and Wintershall Dea Argentina SA, was USD 105,970,000. While in the MLO-119 area, the same companies offered USD 82,445,000.
In the recitals of the regulations, it was indicated that many companies had requested the suspension of the term “because the exploration of hydrocarbons in offshore areas is carried out mainly through the acquisition of seismic to know the potential of the hydrocarbon resources that are available in a certain place”.
This task, added the resolution, “entails the contracting of ships specially designed to carry it out, whose availability depends on the level of activity, logistics of the operation and weather windows, among other variables.”
In this framework, Energy considered “appropriate to grant a reasonable period for carrying out the pending activities and their subsequent interpretation and technical and economic evaluation.”
SOURCE:Energy extended offshore exploration permits to three oil companies – California18