RAUL O. GARCES
Associated Press
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Oil and gas-importing Uruguay has made its first discovery of underground oil in what it calls a promising shale deposit that is encouraging the little country to think big, the state energy company’s director said Thursday.
“We found free oil,” ANCAP director Juan Gomez said in an interview. “You have to go step by step until you determine clearly that these deposits exist, what quality of oil they have and how much there is to exploit. But we are very optimistic.”
Freestanding oil was found in a water well and in shale deposits just 180 meters below ground at a site in the province of Durazno, north of the capital, Gomez said.
Now ANCAP will intensify its joint venture with Dallas, Texas-based Schuepbach Energy, experts in exploring for oil in shale deposits.
Uruguay produces no oil and must import about 50,000 barrels of crude a day at world market prices to supply ANCAP’s refineries.
Uruguay owes more than $700 million for oil imports to Venezuela alone, despite a favorable trade agreement with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The country depends on oil for 60 percent of its energy and is pushing to reduce this dependence by developing wind, biomass and natural gas energy. It also has three hydroelectric dams, and recently announced a joint effort with Argentina to build a regasification plant for liquefied natural gas.
Gomez said the new find and the possibility of offshore oil have attracted the interest of international investors.
Martin Schuepbach, the chairman and chief executive of the exploration company, declined to comment on the size of their investment so far, but he said the find has “very high potential.”
“Basically what we have here is world-class source rock and free oil in a water well. These two things are very very encouraging. It could potentially be very important,” he said.
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Associated Press Writer Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this story.
