Manx company wins bidding contest for rights to explore for oil & gas in sea off Uruguay

A Manx-based company has become one of the largest players in a South American country's offshore gas and oil exploration.

Challenger Energy Group, registered in Alexandra Road in Castletown, has won a bidding contest for the rights to explore for oil and gas in a huge tranche of shallow sea off Uruguay.

The new block means the company has rights to 28,000 square kilometres off the Uruguayan coast.

It's thought the area could contain up to 500 million barrels of oil and around 9 trillion cubic feet of gas.