For decades, exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in the Austral or Magallanes Basin (Santa Cruz province, Magallanes region and Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego), was focused on a petroleum system producing from conventional reservoirs (Springhill Formation). This petroleum system was defined by Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous marine source rocks, connected laterally by stratigraphic carriers or vertically by fractures and faults, to Late Jurassic-Neocomian transgressive sandy reservoirs. In the 1990’s, a second oil play came into being. This was prompted by hydrocarbon shows and oil and gas blow outs while drilling across Lower Cretaceous marine mudstones. Correct assessment was abandoned, after facing technological problems related to well completion. In 2013, a review of the petroleum system and increasing search for new unconventional plays in Tierra del Fuego set new targets. In 2018, a joint study project was established between YPF S.A. and ENAP. The goal of it was to characterize and evaluate the shale oil potential of the Lower Cretaceous System, integrating the data available from both companies into a single database for a common assessment. Multidisciplinary geological, geophysical, and geochemical studies were carried out in order to define sweet spots, by stratigraphic correlation, petrophysical and geomechanical evaluations, detailed seismic mapping and organic geochemical characterization. The integration of the different results was carried out overlapping the different property maps, and thus defining the sweet spots. The results demonstrate a high potential for the play and encourage to continue exploring for unconventional shale resources in Tierra del Fuego.