Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

is a

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

- importing country, and most of the industry is controlled by the state owned industry

ANCAP ANCAP may refer to: * ANCAP (commodity standard), based on ammonium nitrate, copper, aluminum and plywood * Australasian New Car Assessment Program * ANCAP (Uruguay) ANCAP (Administración Nacional de Combustibles, Alcoholes y Portland, Engl ...

. ANCAP operates both the only refinery in Uruguay, La Teja Refinery and the distribution of gas within the country.

History

For decades, Uruguay has been searching for

reserves on its territory. One of the first such attempts was in 1957, when

drilled in the north of the country. In 2012, Uruguay engaged on a bidding process for the exploration of

hydrocarbons In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or e ...

. The following companies are interested: BP,

BG Group BG Group plc was a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Reading, United Kingdom. On 8 April 2015, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire BG Group for $70 billion, subject to regulatory and ...

Total S.A. TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...

, Bahamas Petroleum Company and

Tullow Oil Tullow Oil plc is a multinational oil and gas exploration company founded in Tullow, Ireland, with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. His ...

. Exploration efforts were made in offshore platforms, with an investment of over $1.6

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

in 3 years.

Issues

Leaded gasoline

Leaded gasoline was phased out in the country in 2003.

La Teja Refinery

References

External links

Petroleum system model for Uruguay

Evaluation of the petroleum systems of Uruguay
by Ed Jarvis and Rob Crossley {{Uruguay-stub