On 16 April 2019, the Argentine government announced the winning bids for Round 1 of its offshore bid round, which included offers from 13 companies for 18 blocks (out of 38) in the Austral, Malvinas, and Argentina Basin with a total investment USD 995 million. According to official sources, preliminary awards are scheduled for 16 May 2019, to be followed by issuance of permits on 1 August 2019. Official awards are expected within 15 days after the permits are granted.  In Austral Basin, two shallow water blocks (out of six offered) will be assigned to Equinor with a total investment of USD 38.1 million. Meanwhile in Malvinas Basin, nine deepwater blocks (out of 18 offered) will be assigned to five different operators (Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Total, and Tullow Oil) with a total investment of USD 776 million. In Argentina Basin, seven deepwater and ultra-deepwater blocks (out of 14 offered) will be assigned to four different operators (Equinor, Shell, Total, and YPF) with a total investment of USD 181.1 million. Fifteen companies were previously qualified to participate in the round in mid-March 2019.  Complete results with known information so far:     The exploration target for blocks in the Austral and Malvinas basins is expected to be oil and gas in the Springhill Formation. The formation has been proven to be a producer in several gas fields in the Austral Basin, although no discoveries have been made in any of the areas covered by the bid blocks. In comparison, Springhill Formation has not produced from any fields on the Malvinas Basin side, although the bid blocks area includes 3 discoveries: Ciclon 1 oil discovery by YPF in MLO-122 in 1980, along with Salmon 2 gas discovery in MLO-117 by Esso (ExxonMobil) in 1981 and 1982, respectively. Most recently, MLO-117 was part of the Calamar block, where state energy company ENARSA conducted a study with Venezuelan state company PDVSA in 2015 with potential of the area said to be at 3.6 Tscf of gas.  Meanwhile, the deepwater and ultra deepwater blocks in the Argentina Basin are relatively unexplored. There are no discoveries or significant drilled wells in the bid blocks area, other than two wells that were drilled and P&Aâd with oil & gas shows by Union Texas in CAN-109 in the mid-1990âs.   Most of the blocks will include a 13 years exploration period (4 years each in the first and second phases with 5 years in the third) with no drilling commitments until the second exploration period, and followed by 30 years of production period with unlimited possibility of 10 years extension, except for shallow water blocks which will have shorter exploration phases of 11 years (4+4+3) with the same length of production period. The government reportedly require that 50% acreage must be relinquished after the 2nd exploration phase. Royalties will start at 5%, but will increase to 12% depending on performance. It was also said that there will be an option for suspension of development plan, where if a discovery was made but found to be non-economical a suspension of five years is available and can be renewed one additional time for another five years.  Background Information  Round 1 of Argentina offshore bid round was officially launched in November 2018 for 38 blocks in the Austral, Malvinas, and Argentina Basin with the publication of Resolution 65/2018 on 6 November 2018. Prior to the launch of Round 1, the Argentinean government has assigned Spectrum Geo to acquire 2D seismic lines in late-2017. In Malvinas Basin, 13,784Â km of acquisition was completed in March 2018, while in Argentina Basin, 37,900 km was completed in May 2018.
Argentina, not found