YPF partners with an Italian giant to explore the sea off the coast of Uruguay

YPF, through the company MIWEN, had 100% since December 2023, in a 30-year concession to explore and exploit hydrocarbons. nowwill give ENI 50% and the operation of the OFF-5 block, located about 200 kilometers from the Uruguayan coast, with an approximate area of ​​17,000 square kilometers and water depths that reach 4,100 meters.

Exploration in that area is just giving his first steps. They are doing geological studies of the seabed and subsoil to decide whether or not to drill to see if there is oil and gas, something that could only happen at the end of 2027. ENI will continue with the studies that YPF had started within the framework of the commitments assumed with ANCAP and will provide technologies developed by the company itself to speed up analysis.

“Eni’s entry into Uruguay together with MIWEN further reinforces the collaboration between Eni and YPF, partners in the integrated exploration, production and transportation project of Argentina LNG, as well as Eni’s presence in South America,” said the Italian firm. This is the megaproject to export gas by ship in which it also participates XRG, the international business unit of ADNOC, from the United Arab Emirates.

“The incorporation of one of the main energy companies in the world to the project represents new support for the potential of the Uruguayan offshore and reinforces the growing interest of the international oil industry in exploration opportunities in Uruguayan waters“Ancap said.

On the list of companies that have already acquired offshore areas in the neighboring country are Chevron, Shell, Sintana y Apa Corporation (Apache). Precisely to this last company, ENI has just bought 40% of the OFF-6 block, next to that of YPF.

As explained at the time Horacio Marín, the CEO of YPFthe decision to advance with offshore exploration is supported by geological studies on the evolution of the margins of the Atlantic Ocean, which show conditions similar to those of producing areas on the African continent.

Argentina also wants exploration on its coasts. That is why last month he gave the green light to the call for an international tender to grant an exploration permit in search of gas and oil in the Argentine Sea, off the coast of the province of Buenos Aires, near San Clemente del Tuyú, at the Atlantic end of Samborombón Bay.

The International Public Competition will be for the area Northern Argentine Basin 200 and is carried out on the expression of interest formulated by the British Challenger Energy Group, a junior oil company acquired in 2025 by the Canadian Sintana Energyprecisely one of the firms that owns offshore exploration assets in Uruguay.