State energy company YPF announced on Tuesday that it has partnered with Italy’s ENI to begin searching for oil in Uruguayan waters.
Uruguay, through its state-owned oil company Ancap, has seven offshore areas with active exploration contracts held by international companies.
The agreement between YPF and ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, or “National Hydrocarbons Corporation”) focuses on the possible exploration of a block located some 200 kilometres off the Uruguayan coast, according to a statement dated in Montevideo. The area covers around 17,000 square kilometres and reaches a maximum depth of 4,100 metres.
YPF’s company president and chief executive Horacio Marín said that seismic studies will be carried out in Italy over the coming months to determine whether a well will be drilled to begin exploration.
The chances of finding oil in Uruguay are below 50 percent, according to geological assessments, but Marín believes they are higher.
“You have to drill to see it; we still haven’t found oil,” he said at a press conference in Montevideo during the Energy Summit 2025, which was organised by the El Observador newspaper.
In Uruguay, a country without crude oil production, Ancap is responsible for refining the petroleum that enters the country. For the state-owned company, the probability of finding the hydrocarbons is low.
– TIMES/AFP
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