ANCAP’s board announced Thursday that three oil and gas exploration areas – out of six available – have been awarded on the Uruguayan offshore platform. The president of ANCAP, Alejandro Stipanicic, affirmed that the award is “of great importance”, because it marks the return to the country of oil companies after ten years of not receiving proposals of this type. They are: Shell, through its subsidiary BG International Ltd., which bid for blocks OFF-2 and OFF-7, while APA Corporation (formerly known as Apache Corporation) submitted bids for blocks OFF-2 and OFF6.
This Friday, June 24, Lacalle Pou attended the beginning of the civil works of the first service free zone in Maldonado, World Trade Center Punta del Este Free Zone, whose investment is around 65 million dollars and will employ 1,200 people.
I dont know
In this framework, the president was consulted by the press about the possibility of oil being found on the maritime platform, and said: “I don’t know.”
In any case, he then expanded on his answer and stated that it has been explored for many years, and private companies want to carry out such explorations. “A few years ago it was announced that we had just found the source of oil. But you have to be very cautious to say ‘I don’t think there is’, and very cautious also to say ‘I’m sure there is’”.
“Explorations are being carried out in this regard. We will see. What is clear is that the world is going the other way. It is clear that Uruguay has abundant electricity generation, so much so that it exports energy that is much more friendly to the environment and that is where we should go: electricity, green hydrogen, and not so much fossil fuels”, he stated.
