Italy’s national oil company Eni has agreed to acquire 50% and operatorship of an offshore Uruguay exploration license from Argentine counterpart YPF.
Under the deal, which requires final approval from Uruguayan authorities, Eni will take the reins of deepwater area OFF-5, which covers approximately 17,000km².
“Block OFF-5 represents a highly prospective area that further strengthens Eni’s exploration portfolio that combines a large and robust set of near-field and infrastructure-led exploration prospects with diversified selected high-impact opportunities, on which to apply Eni’s proprietary technologies to expedite and maximize value,” Eni said in a statement.
All of Uruguay’s seven offshore exploration blocks have active contracts.
YPF signed an agreement with Uruguay in 2023. The committed exploration program includes geological evaluation, assessment of prospective resources, and 3D inversion modeling of magnetic and gravimetric data.
Other firms with offshore interests in Uruguay are Challenger Energy, Shell and APA Corporation.
Canadian upstream firm Sintana Energy recently agreed to acquire Isle of Man-registered Challenger.
Oil and gas shows have been reported offshore Uruguay in previous exploration phases, but no commercial discoveries have been made.
Uruguay and Argentina, as well as a company targeting acreage off the Falkland Islands, have said discoveries offshore West Africa were made in geological formations similar to those found off the South American coast.
In Argentina, Eni is working with YPF on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project.
Eni said the Uruguay agreement “further strengthens the collaboration between Eni and YPF.”
The LNG project – the third phase of Argentina LNG – involves deploying two YPF LNG vessels with combined capacity of around 12Mt/y.
Eni is YPF’s strategic partner. United Arab Emirates-based Adnoc recently joined the project.
(The original version of this content was written in English)