Explorers still chasing wildcats offshore Latin America
Oil prices offer little encouragement, but unexplored areas around the continent are still drawing investment
Offshore drilling has taken a dive as the oil price has fallen, but some areas are holding up better than others. In some unexplored Latin American waters, drillers are taking advantage of plunging rig and service rates to push forward exploration and development in frontier areas. In March, Total will start drilling the world’s deepest offshore well in the Pelotas basin off the coast of Uruguay, the country’s first deep-water well. The $100m-plus Raya-1 well is being drilled in Block 14 about 200 km off the Uruguayan coast. Total has hired Maersk’s Venturer ultra-deep-water drillship from March through July to do the work. Total farmed out a 15% interest in the block to Statoil in early Feb

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