Have Oil, Will Travel: Petrobras To Plant A Bit Offshore Argentina

Joint ventures are abounding offshore Argentina. Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has teamed up with Enarsa, Argentina's state-run energy company, Repsol YPF and PetroUruguay to explore Argentina's offshore realm.

Petrobras' Decio Oddone told Estado news service that the company has already made plans to drill its first well offshore Argentina in 2010.

From 2008 to 2012, Petrobras Energia, Petrobras' Argentine arm, plans to invest $2.4 billion in its South American neighbor. Oddone said that $1.5 billion of that investment has been portioned out for exploration and production.

Of particular interest are recent discoveries offshore Brazil. Petrobras will search and see if the discovery may spread into Argentine waters.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) considers Argentina a "significant player in the Latin American oil market" with its 2.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

Though current oil production for Argentina is tallied at 789,800 bbl/d, the EIA estimates that the country's production rates will decline in 2008 to 770,000 and 760,000 in 2009. The majority of Argentina's oil exports got to Brazil and Chile.

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