The Argentine state-owned company YPF will search for oil in the Uruguayan sea.

The public company received one of the licenses awarded by Montevideo for offshore exploration.

The other firms that won the bid are APA Corp from the US and Shell and Challenger from the UK.

Uruguayan authorities emphasized the interest in offshore exploration in the Atlantic following the discovery of deposits off Namibia, in Africa.

Uruguay's public oil company ANCAP remarked: "if before this finding there was a 10% probability of success, now we can think of 25%".

The South American nation imports all the hydrocarbons it consumes, and so far has not found any deposits in its maritime territory.