By Kyle Morris

Shares in Challenger Energy Group PLC rose 14% on Tuesday after the company said that its decision to enter Uruguay has been further validated by the recent award of offshore blocks in the country to a Shell PLC-APA Corp. consortium and to the Argentinian national oil company.

The Caribbean and Americas-focused oil-and-gas company said that the AREA OFF-4 deep-water offshore block, adjacent to its AREA OFF-1 shallow water exploration block, has been awarded to the Shell-APA consortium. The AREA OFF-5 deep-water offshore block has been awarded to the Argentinian national oil company.
The AREA OFF-1 block contains an estimated resource potential of more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent, it said.
“This dramatic increase in interest in Uruguay and the neighboring region is directly related to the very sizeable discoveries made in the conjugate margin Orange Basin in early 2022, and through the course of 2023 we hope to move forward with a farm-in, so as to capitalize on that increased interest and allow for accelerated work on our block,” Chief Executive Eytan Uliel said.
Shares in Challenger Energy at 0803 GMT were up 0.01 pence at 0.11 pence.
Write to Kyle Morris at kyle.morris@dowjones.com