Abstract
The Argentine Sea is one of the largest and less explored regions of the planet. It has a potential of billions of barrels of oil to be investigated. The country's great challenge is to verify and develop this potential in the framework of narrow transitions to alternative energies and decarbonization. For unlocking this hydrocarbon potential, a Play Analysis methodology was applied to the entire Argentinian margin. The large volume of resources detected (+30.000 MBOE) is now being associated with scientific evidence related to the opening of the south Atlantic and recent discoveries on the conjugate south African margin. Besides, a series of actions such as intensive 2D seismic acquisition in deep waters, oceanographic surveys, and the extension of the limit of the continental platform, allowed the country to launch in 2019 its first exploration bidding round since the 1960's. The bidding round was a success in terms of Major energy companies’ interest and investment, ending with the granting of 18 exploration permits. Commitments assumed by companies in these exploration areas are mainly the acquisition of seismic data during a first exploration period. Then, a drill or drop decision must be made to pass to a second period. However, recent changes in Regulations for environmental permits, together with a greater social environmental awareness, led YPF as the National Oil Company, to develop diffusion activities to get the social license to operate. One of the requirements that new regulations introduced, are mandatory public hearings to find out the opinion of the society for each offshore activity. In the first offshore public hearing, only 3% of participants supported the activity but, after strong diffusion effort, the following public hearing registered a 63% of approval. This new context shows that environmental and social demands are a new challenge for the offshore oil & gas activities within the framework of energy transitions and carbon neutrality. It is a priority to respond the concerns of society and demonstrate that the activity could fit in the transition while generating and developing jobs, industries, technical and scientific knowledge, and favorably impacting the economic and social fabric of the country.
