South American oil prospects proliferate

摘要

With Repsol YPF announcing a "transformational" discovery of nearly 1 billion equivalent barrels of recoverable shale oil at the Loma La Lata field in northern Patagonia, Argentina, in November, South America's oil balance is moving more firmly into the black. Across the continent new discoveries are attracting investment from International Oil Companies and boosting the prospects for exports. Repsol expects the cost of fully developing its huge shale oil and natural gas discovery in Argentina at some $20 billion, but is in no hurry to find partners for the project as it continues to appraise the find, the company said. "We want to know better what we have in Vaca Muerta before we start any relations with third parties. So we have a minimum of a year to do our homework," Repsol's chief financial officer Miguel Martinez said.