Offshore staff
(Uruguay)- Uruguay's government should have a decision by early March on whether to ratify a resolution that would modify service contracts to permit smaller private oil companies to partner with state oil firm Ancap on upstream activities.
A source for Ancap said that the current resolution 930, enacted in 1993, requires any partnering company to show that they have the necessary capital and experience for offshore drilling, which is impossible for many smaller companies. The new resolution would allow smaller companies to carry out geological studies, including seismic, and then sell this information to larger companies who would then carry out the drilling work.
Ancap has also included a clause in new contracts that would entitle them to a percentage of production from the blocks in order to recoup investment. This percentage varies from block to block, depending on their productivity.
The current area of interest is a 60,000 sq km region on Uruguay's continental shelf at a depth of 2,000 m, which will be parceled into 10,000 sq km blocks. Ancap has already conducted 12,000 km of 2D seismic data on this region, which is available for a selling price of $20,000. An additional 1,800 km of 2D seismic data has been carried out by several other companies.
Ancap is also preparing to launch an international tender to explore a gas field 160 km off the coast in an area convering 7,000 sq km. Russia's Lukoil Overseas is one of the interested companies.
01/16/2006
