Uruguay oil & gas quest: Prospects appear in one block, as another preps for seismic acquisition

As the offshore oil and gas exploration mission continues in Uruguay, the Isle of Man-headquartered oil and gas company Challenger Energy Group (CEG) is moving forward with its plans to make its assets drill-ready. To this end, the firm has confirmed the identification of prospects in one block and the ongoing preparation to embark on a 3D seismic acquisition campaign at another ahead of the anticipated drill or drop decision.

Given the attention the Latin American country has garnered, several offshore exploration license operators in Uruguay are seeking to undertake 3D seismic data acquisition in the next available season in late 2025/early 2026, which includes the planned campaign over AREA OFF-1, where Chevron (60%) is the operator with Challenger (40%) as its partner.

As a result of the interest in offshore hydrocarbon search, the Uruguay Ministry of Environment is conducting public consultations ahead of the issuance of requisite environmental permits, with separate consultations being held for the various seismic vendors wishing to obtain a permit.

According to Challenger, a consultation was held in respect of TGS in February 2025 and Viridian in May, with an additional, final consultation now scheduled for all remaining permit applicants in late July. Thanks to this, the grant of permits is expected to follow in August/September, enabling seismic acquisition on AREA OFF-1 to kick off in Q4 2025.

With this in mind, the Isle of Man-based player claims that preparatory work for the commencement of the campaign in this timeframe is underway and progressing well, as the Uruguay environmental permitting process is well advanced.

Eytan Uliel, CEO of Challenger Energy, commented: “We are making excellent progress in Uruguay. For AREA OFF-1, we remain on track to commence 3D seismic acquisition in Q4, a hugely value-additive component of the geotechnical work, and fundamental to support any future well drilling decision.”

The company also provided an update on AREA OFF-3, where it acts as the operator with 100% interest in the offshore license, where the reprocessing of 1,250 square kilometers of 3D seismic data was recently completed, along with various geochemical studies, notably a satellite seeps and slick study, a seabed micro-seepage study, and a multibeam echosounder seabed survey.

The firm is now actively engaged in the next phase of evaluation, including mapping and interpretation, to establish a portfolio of leads, high-graded after DHI/AVO interrogation, before volumetric analysis, which represents a similar technical analysis process that was applied on AREA OFF-1.

Challenger describes the preliminary technical results as encouraging, with the ongoing work program having identified several new, amplitude-supported prospects of material size, in relatively shallow waters on AREA OFF-3. The Isle of Man-headquartered firm is calling one of the most promising prospects ‘Benteveo,’ which extends beyond the 3D seismic data set.

This prompted the company to proceed to license additional data to enable analysis of the full extent of Benteveo, estimating it will take a further six to eight weeks to integrate the additional data into the ongoing technical work. In light of this, Challenger expects to be in a position to open the virtual data room for the planned AREA OFF-3 farm-out process in September 2025.

Uliel added: “For AREA OFF-3, early results from our interpretation of the reprocessed 3D seismic are encouraging, and we have thus expanded our technical work to allow for a more thorough evaluation of several of the new amplitude anomalies we have identified. Our aim is to provide a technical update ahead of commencing a farm-out process as planned, later this year.

“In summary, both Uruguay blocks are progressing in line with expectations, positioning Challenger for a busy and exciting period through the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026.”

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐛 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞?

𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝟓𝟎% 𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬!

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