Echo Energy Share News (ECHO)

(Sharecast News) - Echo Energy has teamed up with an Argentinian contractor for a 3D seismic programme on its assets in the South American nation, starting with its "high impact, frontier scale" Tapi Aike exploration area.The upstream oil and gas firm said the programme was due to get underway at Tapi Aike before the end of the year, with work at the Fraccíon C and Fraccíon D areas scheduled to be wrapped up by the midway point of 2019.Tapi Aike, which has previously been assessed by 2D seismic, is made up of 41 exploration leads, all of which are estimated to contain between 50bn and 600bn cubic feet of potential gas resources, making up an estimated "high case" of 22trn cubic feet across the project's whole exploration inventory.UGA Seismic will work with Echo and its local partner Compan~i´a General de Combustibles on the new 1,200 square kilometres 3D seismic programme, specifically designed to de-risk four possible exploration well locations.Chief executive Fiona MacAulay, said: "The negotiation of the competitively priced contract has provided us with significant cost savings against our originally forecast budget and means that we will be able to shoot the entire committed seismic in one of our most exciting licence areas over the next few months."As of 0830 BST, Echo shares had dipped 0.24% to 12.62p.