[from Merco Press, December 4, 2010]
Reports that Repsol-YPF have made a major natural gas discovery in Neuquén
Repsol-YPF has made a mega natural gas strike in the Patagonian province of Neuquen which could supply Argentina with energy for the next half century at least according to an online publication, lapoliticaonline.
Neuquen is famous for oil, gas, sheep and fossilized dinosaurs
The official announcement is scheduled to be made next Tuesday by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner at a special ceremony in Repsol-YPF headquarters in Buenos Aires.
The online media quotes Mario Cavazzoli, oil expert linked to the operation, saying that “the Neuquen basin has 257 TVF which is equivalent to 6 to 20 times the Loma La Lata deposit when it was started”.
Cavazzoli works for Schlumberger the US company contracted by Repsol-YPF, together with Apache to explore the area where the discovery was done.
Miguel Hassekieff, head of the Hydrocarbons Department from the Energy Secretary, said that once the deposit begins to be exploited, “Argentina has gas for the next century and we can cut off from Bolivian imports”.
However the controversy about the true estimate of reserves will only be unveiled next Tuesday. Apparently last February some tentative primary testing estimated the volume of the deposit in 21 trillion cubic feet which is equivalent to La Lata reservoirs.
