France’s Total SA is weeks away from drilling one of its most important offshore exploration wells in the Americas this year as it hunts for a giant oil field in Uruguayan waters. “There could be an elephant out there. This is what we’re chasing,” Christian Tichatschke, Total’s exploration director in Uruguay, said in an interview in Montevideo on Friday. “It’s a very risky project but we believe we can find something.” A discovery could extend an exploration boom in a country that currently imports all of its oil and gas needs. Total, Tullow Oil Plc, BG Group Plc and BP Plc have invested more than $1 billion in exploration activities since they won eight offshore blocks in 2012, said Hector de Santa Ana, E&P director at state-run oil company and sector regulator Ancap. Uruguay’s offshore potential has triggered a spurt of deal-making in recent months even as benchmark oil […]