The largest tar pit in the world, La Brea Pitch Lake in Trinidad, has a fascinating history and awaits approval as a Unesco World Heritage Site – even if it resembles a somewhat neglected car park!

This black shale has been known and exploited as a source rock for over 100 years, but in a potentially game-changing event, the first exports from the Vaca Muerta itself were delivered in June 2019.

There are wide lessons to be learned from the controversy over the origins of the enigmatic Cretaceous lacustrine carbonate reservoirs of offshore Brazil.

The timing of continental extension relative to salt deposition and the impact of pre-salt faulting is critical to reservoir formation and exploration success in the South Atlantic. Major advances in broadband seismic data processing offer clearer imaging, allowing a closer look at the elements of the prolific plays and their tectono-stratigraphic boundary conditions.

Over the next few years the exploration drive in the pre-salt hydrocarbon plays of Brazil is going to shift away from national oil company Petrobras towards the global oil majors.

A brief overview of the history and future of oil and gas exploration in Latin America.

Latin America has the great geology to emulate the North American unconventional hydrocarbon saga, but other factors are determining a different path.

Innovative seismic processing techniques by PGS deliver better fault definition and seismic stratigraphy for improved reservoir characterization in the Santos Basin.

Two region-wide oil and gas lease sales in 2019 in the Gulf of Mexico offer thousands of unleased blocks.

Enhanced mega-regional hydrocarbon play and reservoir fairway maps in the Gulf of Mexico have resulted from improved tectonic restorations of its US and Mexican conjugate margins.

BHP announce two gas discoveries offshore Trinidad and Tobago.

Brazil is emerging as a top player out of the biggest hydrocarbon producing countries of 2018 following confirmation that the pre-salt Campos & Santos basins may contain as much as 100 Bb of recoverable oil.

On 30 August 2018, ExxonMobil announced its ninth hydrocarbon discovery on the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.

Promising deepwater hydrocarbon find on the Guanxuma prospect in the Santos Basin, Brazil.

The next phase for Santos Basin appraisal and development will require new seismic data that captures the pre-salt accurately.