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Argentine Oil Firm Signs Deals With Repsol, Petrobras on Offshore Exploration

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 09:00 CST

Argentine oil firm signs deals with Repsol, Petrobras on offshore exploration

BUENOS AIRES, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Argentine state-owned oil company clinched deals on Wednesday with Spanish-Argentine energy company Repsol YPF and Brazil's state-run Petrobras in a bid to expand offshore oil and gas exploration.

Energia Argentina SA, known as ENARSA, agreed to form a consortium with Repsol YPF, Petrobras as well as the Argentine subsidiary of Uruguay's Ancap to explore the Colorada Marina fields 200 km off Argentina's coast in early March, Argentine Planning Minister Julio de Vido told a press conference on Wednesday.

The project envisaged in the deals is expected to cost between 40 million and 100 million U.S. dollars.

The three companies were ENARSA's first partners since the company's establishment in 2004, de Vido said. Repsol and ENARSA will each have a 35-percent stake in the venture, while Petrobras will control 25 percent and Ancap 5 percent.

Repsol YPF said the deals aim to increase Argentina's hydrocarbon reserves and production which are fundamental to the nation's economic growth.

Argentina is now facing an energy shortage as its oil reserves fell by 12 percent in recent four years and oil production by 14 percent.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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