The Falkland Islands are in the news again, a matter of interest to the oil and gas industry given the reserves under the region’s waters, estimated at 18 billion bbl.
Last week, the Argentine foreign ministry presented the UN with 40 volumes of documentation staking the country’s claim to 1.7 million sq km of seabed, including the UK overseas territories of the Falklands, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands, and a largish chunk of Antarctica.
Argentina’s claim, submitted under Article 76 of the 1994 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, aims to expand its maritime territory by 35% to 370 nautical miles from the shore on the basis of a claimed extension of the Argentine continental shelf.
According to Buenos Aires, the submission represents the culmination of 11 years of research and 12 maritime expeditions. But a skeptical UK Foreign Office said it will present a counter-claim by the UN’s May 13 deadline.
On the attack
Meanwhile, members of the British press are doing their level best to scotch the Argentinean claims.
“Sneaky Argentina is trying to grab the Falklands back from Britain to steal the oil-rich seabed around the islands,” writes a columnist for the UK’s Express Newspapers.
“The Argies are begging the UN to help them in their political bid,” he said, adding that “Argentina were sent packing from the British islands in 1982 after first invading South Georgia.”
The jingoism is apparent when we are reminded “Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher’s Task Force defeated their forces and kicked them out.”
The columnist has no problem dismissing new claims by the Argentinean government, which says “12 years of research proves their continental shelf in Antarctica goes 150 miles beyond the 200-mile limit.”
The writer also has no trouble summing up the evident greed of the Argentine government saying its demands “would increase the area of South Atlantic they own by up to three times the size of France—taking all 778 islands.”
Argentina dismissed
Worse, he says, “the Argies want Britain’s South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands—an area of ocean rich with oil.” Still, the Latin American country is probably not going to prevail as “British Embassy authorities in Buenos Aires vowed to block any moves by Argentina.”
The column even cited a British Embassy spokesman who said: “We do not accept that there is any basis for the Argentine submission.”
Of course the British don’t accept the Argentinean claim. After all, that’s why they will submit a counter-claim by May 13.
And what will that do?
Well, under UN laws, submission of the counter-claim would prevent either nation from exploiting the contested seabed until a diplomatic agreement is reached.
Given the drawn-out nature of the UN’s territorial resolutions, the UK’s counter-claim would spell the end of any drilling activity in the area for the foreseeable future.
Game, set, and match.