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According to the US EIA, Argentina's proved petroleum reserves in 2009 totaled 2.62 billion barrels
(Image from apachecorp: Neuquen,Argentina)
Neuquen,NEU,Argentine -Reuters/Upstreamonline -10 May 2011: -- Argentina's biggest energy company, YPF, has made a large shale oil discovery that was equivalent to 35% of its current crude reserves... The discovery at YPF's Loma La Lata property in Neuquen province could eventually help put the brakes on falling oil production... YPF boss Sebastian Eskenazi said the company had discovered 150 million barrels of potential resources... Today's announcement comes months after YPF said it had found a huge deposit of unconventional natural gas that would be equivalent to a quarter of the country's proven reserves in the same region... Soon after the Argentine find, a US Department of Energy report meanwhile showed that Argentina holds more natural gas trapped in shale rock (*) than all of Europe does, a 774-trillion-cubic-feet bounty that could transform the outlook for Western Hemisphere supply...(*) Beware: Shale Gas Drilling Dangers
New York,NY,USA -Water Contamination from Shale -May 2011: ... The major concern with shale gas drilling is the chemicals used in the process. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 (USA) exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals they use. A study conducted by Theo Colburn, PhD, the director of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange in Paonia, Colorado, has so far identified 65 chemicals that are probable components of the fracking fluids used by shale gas drillers. These chemicals included benzene, glycol-ethers, toluene, 2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethanol, and nonylphenols. All of these chemicals have been linked to health disorders when human exposure is too high...
* Brazil - BP gets final approval to buy Brazilian oilfields
(Picture from Bloomberg: A Devon Energy offshore oil drilling rig in the Polvo, Brazil, field)
Houston,TX,USA -Interactive Investor, by Sheila McNulty -May 11 2011: -- BP, the UK oil company, has received final approval to complete the purchase of 10 exploration and production blocks in Brazil from Devon Energy... The regulatory approvals announced on Tuesday were the last required to conclude the purchase announced in March 2010, as Devon sold offshore and international assets to focus on North America onshore projects... The blocks give BP a broad deepwater exploration acreage position in an oil-rich region off Brazil, as well as two onshore licenses... They follow the acquisition BP completed last month of majority control in Companhia Nacional de Acucar e Alcool, a Brazilian producer of ethanol and sugar. BP paid about $680m to acquire 83 per cent of the shares and refinance the company’s long-term debt. It is now responsible for operating two ethanol plants with processing capacity of 5m tons of sugar cane per year... The assets BP is acquiring from Devon are in the Campos basin, which historically has been less known for oil discoveries than the Santos basin to the south, but analysts believe they still contain significant potential...
