YPF's new exploration programme to include Falklands area

Argentine oil giant YPF the local unit of Spanish oil major Repsol is planning to invest more than pesos 28 bn over the next five years to push ahead with new technology in oil and gas extraction. YPF's plans are based on a programme including some 250 exploration oil fields, which have yet to be leased out.
At a press event hosted at the YPF headquarters and chaired by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, YPF Vide-President Sebastian Escakenazi said the company 2010/2014 exploration and production programme rests on six main pillars. Those include enhanced oil extraction at existing oil fields, the development of non-conventional gas, development of LNG projects, increased oil production capability, revamping the service station network and assessing and developing the untapped exploration potential at all Argentina oil and gas basins.

YPF also said it would explore for oil and natural gas in the Falkland Islands basin as part of the five-year exploration program. The company plans to spend about $ 100 mm during the second half of 2010 to search for oil 289 km off the Argentine coast in the Malvinas Basin. The exploration avoids waters in dispute between Argentina and the UK surrounding the Falkland Islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina, and is within territory controlled by the South American country.
That exploration has a high potential, but also high risk, as the site is 500 meters under water and deposits are estimated to be at a depth of 2,000 meters. The exploration will be conducted by a consortium led by YPF, which has a 33.5 % stake, Pan American Energy with 33.5 % and Brazil's Petrobras with 33 %, YPF said.

YPF's plans also involve mapping out the 250 unassigned exploration blocks remaining in Argentina. Of those, 135 are offshore. While those investment plans haven't been defined in the free blocks, each site will be mapped out using two-dimensional or three-dimensional imaging or through exploratory drilling, as appropriate, a YPF spokesman said.
"This is a frontier exploration project, with high potential as well as high geological risk in an area with water depths of 500 meters (1,640 feet)," the company said.

Earlier this year, Britain and Argentina lodged claim to a large swath of South Atlantic seabed around the remote islands, setting the stage for a battle for control of potentially rich oil and gas reserves.
YPF is also going to focus on increasing its gas-recovery rates.