• The Argentine-Uruguayan offshore in the South Atlantic Context

 

As in every CONEXPLO, this 2026 Edition will bring along a book dealing with a specific subject related to hydrocarbon exploration. This time, the subject will be the Argentine-Uruguayan Offshore, still an exploratory borderline field that concentrates large oil industry investments. Even though deep water remains a huge and highly risky technological challenge, it’s a highly rewarding area.

 

Large hydrocarbon findings on the Namibia conjugated margin within an analogous geological context provide additional knowledge and expectations to duplicate similar findings.

 

These expectations have been reflected on several calls for tender and acreage acquisitions both in Uruguay and Argentina, and the industry has witnessed the registration of a massive number of 2D and 3D seismic information, gravimetry and magnetometry studies. The adverse result of the first deep water well on the Colorado Basin’s outer area (Argerich x-1) cannot be possibly taken as representative of an over two million square kilometers area. Notwithstanding, the information it provided has been crucial to the interpretation of the Argentine outer margin.

 

Thirty years have elapsed since the 1996 Conexplo, which was jointly organized with the Argentine Geology Association and where a volume exclusively dedicated to offshore exploration was presented. For many years this book has been a referential work within the academia and the industry. In previous Conexplos, such as the 2022 edition, offshore was addressed in special sessions that appear in the Congress Records. This book is an attempt to work as a bridge between the academy and the industry, gathering current knowledge and becoming a specific referential work. The works included will be related to the Argentine-Uruguayan Offshore, though other authors with expertise in nearby areas have been invited to collaborate.

 

This work will include two seismic transects that represent key Argentine Offshore areas, which may become the basis for a future geological framework that will incorporate the most recent exploratory data.

 

 

 

Referents:

 

• Juan Pablo Lovecchio, YPF
• Alberto Sanchez Lopez, Equinor
• Gabriela Depine, Shell
• Eduardo Micucchi, Tecpetrol
• Martín Pereyra, Pluspetrol
• Estafanía Tudisca, Pluspetrol
• Sebastián Galeazzi, Consultor