South America Archives - Page 2 of 14

South America

The next test for US shale capital

On 4 May, Gas y Petróleo del Neuquén (GyP) and Governor Rolando Figueroa launched Round 1/2026 at the OTC in Houston, opening 15 hydrocarbon blocks to national and international bidders. The round was formally enacted on 29 May through its…

Felipe Calderon and Andres Armijos, Welligence Energy Analytics

September 29, 2026

Argentina’s pioneers and the secret of Cacheuta

In April 1886, Carlos Fader and the Compañía Mendocina de Petróleo chose a remote spot in Cacheuta, near Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the whole of the Andes, to drill Argentina’s first commercial oil well. Armed with rudimentary machinery, they…

Marcos Asensio, Geologist

September 25, 2026

Seeing the unseen: New 3D seismic insights from the deepwater Pará-Maranhão Basin

Pará–Maranhão Basin: New insights from PAMA 3D seismic New PAMA 3D seismic unlocks clearer imaging and reveals significant untapped hydrocarbon potential in Brazil’s Pará–Maranhão Basin Figure 2: Sweetness attribute extraction from interpreted Cenozoic surface showing the basin’s main features (depositional…

Kyle Reuber, Derek Unger, Pedro Zalan, Henri Houllevigue, Kenneth Shipper, TGS

September 9, 2026

Exclusive access to Venezuela’s next offshore play

Venezuela Offshore Multi-Phase Exploration Program, via exclusive multi-client agreement with the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (MINHID). Venezuela offshore: A basin re-entering the global stage Proven discoveries, established infrastructure and newly reprocessed seismic data are providing a clearer understanding of Plataforma Deltana,…

Mike Powney, Jeniffer Masi and George Baba, Geoex MCG; Julian Sherriff and Stephen Doyle, Dug Technology

August 18, 2026

Decommissioning and discovering at the same time

The Marlim field was discovered in 1985, on the back of the first proper exploration drive to test the potential of Brazil’s deepwater Campos basin. Oil was found in Oligocene post-salt sands, mostly thanks to a pronounced seismic anomaly. The…

Henk Kombrink

August 10, 2026

Spatial variation in charge risk along the Guyana-Suriname margin

The Guyana-Suriname Basin is a Mesozoic rifted-passive margin along the northeastern coast of South America that has emerged as one of the most prolific deepwater petroleum provinces of the past decade. Since the Liza-1 discovery in 2015, the central play…

Kenneth Shipper, Paul Mann, CBTH Project, University of Houston and Andrew Pepper, This Is Petroleum Systems

July 9, 2026

Before you decide to enter Venezuela…

In recent months, several articles emphasising the historical, technical, and human aspects of the evolving “apertura” in Venezuela have been published in the AAPG Explorer and GEO EXPRO. In the former, Brown provided geopolitical and historical perspectives and an indication…

Kevin Schofield, Katya Casey, Marel Sanchez and Juan Francisco Arminio, U3Explore

July 7, 2026

Revival of South Africa’s first commercial Helium project

These observations prompted Renergen to apply for a natural gas exploration permit across Welkom, Virginia and Theunissen in Free State, South Africa. They soon discovered that apart from methane, the gas also contained high concentrations of helium, an opportunity that…

Mariël Reitsma

June 29, 2026

A Cenomanian- Turonian source rock adventure in the Pelotas Basin

Searcher and Shearwater’s 16,500 km2 3D in the Pelotas Basin, southern Brazil. Hunting for Cenomanian-Turonian source rocks in the South Atlantic Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, key risk elements to any play (source, reservoir and trap) need to be…

Neil Hodgson, Karyna Rodriguez and Lauren Found, Searcher

June 9, 2026

Improving the signal-to-noise ratio in Venezuela’s oil and gas industry revival

One of the dominant themes in the petroleum industry in 2026 remains Venezuela and the rapid evolution of the country’s investment landscape. The year began with significant political changes and a resultant growing number of publications reassessing Venezuela’s subsurface potential…

Katya Casey - U3 Explore

May 26, 2026

“Seeking the Sweet Spot in offshore Ecuador’s Sweet Shop”

Searcher use of modern processing algorithms to unleash the hidden sweetness in Ecuador’s legacy offshore seismic Setting the scene Figure 1: Offshore Ecuador Main Tectonic Elements. The destructive margin setting for Ecuador’s northern offshore margin has its own complexity in…

Neil Hodgson, Karyna Rodriguez and Lauren Found, Searcher

April 22, 2026

bp and Brazil

In August 2025, bp announced the much-needed news that its exploration well designated 1-BP-13-SPS in the Bumerangue Production Sharing Contract block, located in the prolific Santos Basin, was a significant oil and gas discovery. The discovery represents bp’s largest discovery…

Ian Cross, Moyes & Co

April 8, 2026

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective