Equinor confirms the start of offshore drilling in the Argentine sea

The Norwegian oil company Equinor plans to carry out the seismic explorations next October and the first drilling in the Argerich-1 well in January 2024, as part of the offshore project in the North Argentina Basin (CAN) of the Argentine sea, according to official sources reported this Wednesday.

The governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillofmet this Tuesday with Equinor authorities to review the progress of activities in the offshore oil areas of that province, authorized by the National Climate Change Secretariat last July, after a controversy that reached the Court due to its impact environmental.

The Secretariat for Climate Change authorized the drilling project for the Argerich-1 exploratory well (Block CAN_100) for the period between December 15, 2023 and June 15, 2024, after approving it last December, after the Argentine Justice annulled a precautionary measure that stopped that oil exploration.

The areas in the Buenos Aires Basin where the activity of Equinor They are located more than 300 kilometers from the provincial coast.

According to the government statement of kicillofthis first project would have an estimated potential production of 250,000 barrels per day, which is equivalent to the current total production of conventional and unconventional oil of the Argentine state-controlled oil company, YPF, and a quarter of the country’s current total production.

“The Buenos Aires Basin represents a possibility of substantially modifying the country’s energy self-sufficiency equation: only in the explored area, there is the possibility of carrying out 3 or 4 wells of this size.”, he explained.

This ‘offshore’ project sparked a controversy in Argentina at the end of December 2021, when the Argentine Ministry of the Environment gave the green light to the seismic exploration of hydrocarbons in three CAN blocks located between 307 and 443 kilometers from the coast of Mar del Plata, the largest vacation center on the Atlantic coast of Argentina and which lives off tourism and fishing.

Equinor It is the operator of the three areas, although in the main block, CAN 100 -of 15,000 square kilometers-, it is associated with YPF, controlled by the Argentine State, and Shell, and in another, CAN 114, only with YPF.

In January 2022, a collective amparo action was initiated to achieve the cessation of seismic exploration and oil exploitation in the area, and finally, in December 2022, the Federal Chamber of Mar del Plata allowed the project, urging the authorities to maintain ” maximum level of control” over project activities.

The province highlighted this Wednesday that “the studies carried out have determined an almost zero probability of environmental risk for the Argentine coast, due to the great distance to which the resources are located and the dynamics of the tides, as well as the capacity of Equinor”, and they expect it to generate some 22,000 direct jobs and 110,000 indirect ones.

Source: EFE