ExxonMobil Corp said on Wednesday that it has found a promising shale oil deposit in southern Argentina, on par with some of the best of its kind in the US.
The US oil giant started work last year in Vaca Muerta, in Neuquen Province, in the southern Patagonia region.
Vaca Muerta is described as a huge deposit that ranks Argentina second in the world for shale gas reserves and fourth for potential shale oil reserves.
Photo: Reuters
The US is the world leader in shale oil and shale gas reserves, as well as in related technology.
Testing of the non-conventional well, which would require fracking, showed potential for a flow of 770 barrels per day, the company said in a statement.
“It is a very important [potential] well, in terms of likely volume, on a par with the best [non-conventional] sites in the US,” industry expert Eduardo Barreiro said.
A judge earlier this month said Argentine President Cristina Kirchner could be investigated for abuse of authority in a major Chevron fracking deal.
Chevron Corp and YPF SA also this month unveiled plans to spend another US$1.6 billion to develop the Vaca Muerta shale formation for oil and gas projects.
Kirchner is motivated to stop spending billions of US dollars on energy imports every year and to develop Argentina’s energy self-sufficiency. The nation’s energy import costs hit US$9 billion last year, which is a top economic concern, because Argentina is losing its hard currency reserves on imports.
Argentine oil giant YPF has dug 184 wells and is on target to have 300 open by year’s end.
New techniques for extracting oil and gas, notably hydraulic fracking involving the injection of water and chemicals deep into rock to release reserves, have led to booming production in North America.
The cheap resource is causing upheaval on world markets in what the International Energy Agency describes as an energy revolution.
Yet critics say fracking increases the risk of contaminating drinking water, suggesting untold dangers to humans and livestock, alongside fracking-related earthquakes and other pollution.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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