Shale Compendium: South America

 Argentina

• Chevron and YPF signed a $1.5B deal to develop the Vaca Muerta shale field, with plans to drill over 100 unconventional wells in the next 12 months (Reuters)

• Exxon and YPF exploring for unconventional oil and gas in Argentina (Bloomberg)

• Bridas Corp. and YPF signed a $1.5B deal for shale development in Vaca Muerta (Cortez Journal)

• YPF and Chevron sign agreement to explore and develop shale oil in Vaca Muerta (2013 PwC Report p.4)

• YPF and Dow Chemical signed a preliminary shale agreement to explore for shale gas in Orejano block (WSJ MarketWatch)

• Argentina’s government implemented a “Gas Plus” program that will include all shale projects and provide a price guarantee for discovered gas (KPMG 2011 Shale Gas A Global Perspective p.10; Legal Status of Shale Gas in Argentina)

• Argentina’s Shale Gas Revolution, Americas Quarterly Apr. 2012

Colombia

• Columbia Ecopetrol SA exploratory well found crude oil, company continues explorations (Oil & Gas Journal Apr. 2013)

• Petrominerales is doing production testing in Llanos basin and plans to drill a second horizontal well (Oil & Gas Journal Mar. 2013)

• Exxon acquires shale exploration rights in two blocks in Columbia. (2013 PwC Report p.4)

Brazil

• Brazil’s energy regulator ANP plans to auction exploration rights for shale gas deposits in five different basins in Brazil, the auction is planned to take place on October 30 and 31, 2013. (Reuters Jan. 2013; Reuters Feb. 2013)

• Brazil’s Cemig investing in unconventional fuels, drilled two exploratory wells in 2012, three more planned (Bloomberg)

Chile

• Companies have approached Chile’s Ministry of Energy for Special Contracts of Petroleum Operations. Chile’s Ministry of Energy has been diverting investments due to lack of information about shale gas in the country. (Natural Gas Americas)

• Chilean government expected to come up with a shale development scheme in 2013 (Power Engineering Int.)

Paraguay

• Unconventional Gas in Paraguay report May 2012

• Paraguay and Uruguay have not announced any specific plans for shale extraction (Power Engineering Int. Jan. 2013)

Bolivia

• Bolivia’s YPFB started preliminary studies on shale gas potential (Energy News Feb. 2013)

Uruguay

• USGS, Assessment of Potential Shale Gas and Shale Oil Resources of the Norte Basin, Uruguay (2011)

• YPF partnered with Ancap for shale development in Uruguay’s portion of Chaco basin (Power Engineering Int. Jan. 2013)

Venezuela

• Nicolas Maduro and Vladimir Putin "affirmed their readiness for further progressive development of bilateral cooperation in the spirit of strategic partnership" (Reuters Apr. 2013)

• Shale and Beyond: The Next Phase of Latin American Energy Integration, World Politics Mar. 2013

Written by Anna Leonenko, Research Fellow

Penn State Law, Agricultural Law Center

May 2013