The Secretary of Energy extended for one year the term of the first exploration period of the permit granted to the companies Exxonmobil and Qatar Petroleum (QP) over area 113 of the West Malvinas Basin (MLO_113), on the Fuegian coast of the Argentine Sea.
The measure was ordered through resolution 752/2022, published this Monday in the Official Gazette, in response to the difficulties in transferring personnel and equipment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The award had been resolved on May 17, 2019, within the framework of the International Offshore Public Tender, in which permits were obtained in 18 areas of three basins with a total investment of US$724 million.
In the case of the MLO_113 area, the offer of Exxonmobil Exploration and Production Offshore Argentina SRL and QP Oil and Gas SAU, was US$30.1 million.
In the recitals of the rule, it was indicated that many companies had requested the suspension of the term “because hydrocarbon exploration in offshore areas is carried out mainly through seismic acquisition to discover the potential of hydrocarbon resources that are arranged in a certain place.
This task, added the resolution, “entails the hiring 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 that framework, Energy considered it “advisable to grant a reasonable term for carrying out the pending activities and their subsequent interpretation and technical and economic evaluation.”
