Offshore staff
DOUGLAS, UK — Challenger Energy Group has bid for AREA OFF-3 license, the sole remaining block to be awarded offshore Uruguay.
The company operates AREA OFF-1, while Shell, Apache and YPF hold the remaining licenses.
AREA OFF-3 spans 13,252 sq km in 20 m to 1,000 m of water, about 100 km offshore, and it has 2D and 3D seismic coverage, the latter acquired by PGS for bp in 2012. Challenger estimates the resource potential at up to ~500 MMboe and up to ~9 Tcf of gas, from various exploration plays, with mapped prospects of interest in water depths of ~250 m.
The Amalia prospect overlaps the boundary with Shell's AREA OFF-2, with an estimated 25% thought to be contained within AREA OFF-3. Another of the main prospects, Morpheus, is entirely within AREA OFF-3.
Challenger’s bid comprised an initial four-year exploration period, with a commitment to reprocess and reinterpret 1,000 km of 2D seismic data at an estimated cost of $100,000 per year. No further seismic acquisition or drilling are required in that period, the company added.
CEO Eytan Uliel said the formal award should occur in the next three weeks.
AREA OFF-3 and AREA OFF-1 are in the offshore Punta del Este and Pelotas sedimentary basins.
06.05.2023
