Argentina announces major oil discovery

Argentina's YPF oil and gas company has announced a historic oil discovery in the country's southern province of Neuquen. Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF) new finding includes 927 million barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, of which 741 million barrels is shale oil. “They [YPF] have an important discovery, and they have to expand it. The major challenge is to develop the technology and raise the capital in order to produce at reasonable prices,” Daniel Gerold, an energy market analyst told Press TV. He added that, “What the Middle East and Central Asian countries have, is the traditional fields which are very large. In Latin America it [this discovery] is a positive evolution, however it requires much more capital in order to develop.” Last year, boom of Latin America's oil activity was marked when Brazil's state-run firm, Petrobas, announced the finding of the largest light crude oil field since 1976 that would produce up to 40 billion barrels of oil. Petrobas's finding was the world's biggest oil discovery in 30 years that is expected to provide South America's top economy with the world's eighth largest oil and gas reserves. Mexico also made the headlines this year with an important offshore finding. In May, Mexican Pemex announced the discovery of a natural gas field in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico with initial tests showing that the field holds an estimated 400 to 600 billion cubic feet of reserves. Huge oil findings in Latin America in recent years have placed the region at the forefront of energy markets.