Abstract: Future Potential and Outlook for Argentina

Turic, Mateo - YPF

Argentina presents a very interesting future in the hydrocarbons exploration industry. Oil and gas have been discovered in different basins formed in a variety of tectonic settings and with a wide diversity of sedimentary fillings. The source and reservoir rocks date from Lower and Upper Paleozoic, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and even the Lower Tertiary. Numerous basin configurations and trap styles have been found ? i.e., the giant gas field Loma La Lata or the giant oil field Chihuidos-Lomitas, both in the Neuquén basin. Therefore, offering many opportunities of unexpected discoveries.

But, is Argentina an oil country or a country with oil? Which is the potential of the Argentinean basins?

Of the twenty-four sedimentary basins identified in Argentina, all deemed to have exploration potential, only five are producing today. These five basins are: Noroeste, Cuyo, Neuquén, San Jorge and Austral or Magallanes. In the sixth, non-commercial discovery was made in the early eighties ? Malvinas basin. From 1907 to 1997 over 5840 exploratory wells were drilled. The cumulative oil production is 7 billion barrels and the gas production is 18 TCF.

All of this has so far qualified Argentina as an oil country with an annual production enough to satisfy the domestic market and be a relatively important supplier for the regional market of the Southern Cone of South America.

In spite of Argentina?s relative maturity of the most important producing basins, YPF?s analysis allows us to estimate future discoveries in the known productive basins of roughly 3 billion barrels of oil. The exploration effort by all companies is necessary in the period 1999-2008 ? next ten years. It means the replacement of reserves, with revisions, at a ratio of 1:1.

A quick review of the non-productive basins shows that curiously they are not only the least explored but also the largest ones. We are referring not only to the most obvious, like the huge Paraná basin or the Argentinean Continental shelf, but also to the deep horizons such as the Neocomian in the San Jorge basins or the Early Jurassic in the Neuquén basin.

The exploration has been particularly weak in the continental shelf, with the exception of the offshore extension of some producing fields in the Austral and San Jorge basin. Almost totally unexplored is the continental slope, where the limited available information shows the presence of a thick Cretaceous sedimentary wedge opening towards the East.

On the issue of non-productive basins we cannot make any forecast. However, we expect that these basins will contribute significantly to the Argentine production in the Next Millenium.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90933©1998 ABGP/AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil