ExxonMobil and partners Hess and CNOOC made another oil discovery offshore Guyana; encountering 36.7m of oil in Cretaceous sandstones in the Uaru-2 wildcat well on the prolific Stabroek Block.

Tullow’s Block 47 GVN-1 has reached TD at 5,060m, encountering good quality reservoir but only minor oil shows.

Apache and Total have encountered considerable net hydrocarbon pay in good quality Upper-Cretaceous reservoirs in the Block 58 Keskesi East-1 well.

In southern offshore Trinidad, BHP have made two deepwater gas condensate discoveries in recent years, but the latest Broadside-1 well was met with disappointing results.

Late in 2020 Brazil announced details of its 17th Licensing Round in which 92 blocks in the offshore Campos, Pelotas, Potiguar and Santos Basins, covering a total of 53,900 km2, will be offered.

Suriname is offering eight new offshore blocks in the underexplored Shallow Offshore (SHO) acreage, which are in close proximity to a string of deepwater hydrocarbon discoveries and billion barrel in-place onshore oil fields.

Petronas, with new farminee ExxonMobil, have now spud Sloanea-1 on Suriname Block 52, along trend and 60 km south-east of Kwaskwasi in Block 58.

Since August 2019, Touchstone Exploration of Canada have been quietly logging impressive net gas pays and proving up significant gas reserves in Trinidad’s mature southern onshore trend.

New pre-salt hydrocarbon opportunities have been identified in the ultra-deepwater areas of the Santos Basin.

Multi-client geoscience provider Searcher offers Argentina Explorers Package, which includes seismic and well data, to support oil and gas exploration in the onshore Neuquén and Cuyo Basins in the Mendoza province of Argentina.

Patterns are emerging in the Guyana-Suriname hydrocarbon hotspot as further successes are announcement - indicating an even more promising future for oil and gas exploration in the region.

Reprocessing of seismic data across the Malvinas Basin has increased the hydrocarbon potential offshore Argentina by defining virtually unexplored Tertiary plays.

As Olivier and Caroline continued their epic cycle through South America, they found crossing the high plateau of the Bolivian Altiplano to be a direct encounter with pristine and pure geology.

Alfredo Guzmán is an untiring advocate for Mexico’s oil and gas industry and its people. He tells GEO ExPro about his years exploring new geographic and technical frontiers in the country and his hopes for the Mexico's future in petroleum.

South America’s upcoming floater projects could help sustain fabrication yards that are struggling to keep their doors open, with FPSO developments driven by Brazil and Guyana.