MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Argentina takes action against foreign oil companies operating on South Atlantic continental shelf
The companies had been served discouraging notes, Filmus said Argentina's Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Energy Wednesday announced sanctions were to be imposed on three companies for operating illegally in the South Atlantic.
According to the Argentine authorities, the companies were dedicated to the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on the Argentine Continental Shelf, in the northern Falklands basin.
Two of the companies are British and the other Israeli, authorities said during a joint press conference by the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Secretary Daniel Filmus, and his Energy colleague Darío Martínez.
The British-based Chrysaor Holdings Limited and Harbor Energy Plc. companies and the Israeli Navitas Petroleum LP were being served notices for breaching Argentine hydrocarbon laws, passed in 2011 and 2013, which require companies operating on the continental shelf to have express authorization from the Argentine government.
Sanctions range from a disqualification of between 5 and 20 years to work in Argentina, in addition to fines which can entail preventive embargoes.
The companies now have 20 business days to exercise their defence.
“The companies are not authorized to operate nor have they requested authorization and that is why we started this process, which has to do with notification and sanctions. The Ministry of Energy provided the technical knowledge and records and then the Foreign Ministry will continue with the claims,” Martínez explained.
Filmus also highlighted that these companies were served discouragement notes last year but they carried on nevertheless. He also pointed out that Argentina's actions in this regard have been backed by multilateral organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), Mercosur and the Ibero-American Summit.
The Argentine Secretary also said that these organizations issued “resolutions for there to be a bilateral negotiation in the dispute with the United Kingdom”, but also invoked resolution 31/49 of the United Nations “which establishes that none of the two parties can have a unilateral action”.
Filmus added that these three companies will be added to the other eight oil companies that were sanctioned for the same issue between 2011 and 2015.
(Source: Telam)
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Read all commentsNote Filmus did not describe how successful the sanctions imposed on the other eight companies had been.
Jul 08th, 2021 - 10:45 am +7The UNCLOS, and particularly Article 121 clearly states that the islands can have exclusive economic zones and continental shelf just like every other land territory.
Jul 08th, 2021 - 10:37 am +5Liberato.
Jul 08th, 2021 - 07:08 pm +5You are the delusional ones.
In 1594 Richard Hawkins claimed the whole of the Falkland Islands for Queen Elizabeth the 1 hundreds of years before an Argentine attempted to settle this land. In fact Argentina did not exist then.
Do your homework. Oh I keep forgetting you cant because the truth was erased from your education system.
In 1833 Argentina was asked to leave without a single shot being fired. Your lot left peacefully because you knew that your attempt to squat on someone else's property was rumbled.
Even the civilians that were there at the time. Many of them decided they had a better life with Britain than with a pirate like Argentina.
While we are at it. Are you going to give the indigenous people their land back that you stole. I doubt it and that one day , will come back to bite you.
Unless you are going to try physical force again which I doubt. The new threats against oil companies will be nothing more than hot air.
Nothing that Argentina has put in place to hinder us has worked because in the eyes of the world we are a peaceful people who had never done harm to Argentina.
Remember we control your war grave and if you still want to come peacefully to visit those soldiers I sugest your government starts to clean up its act of aggression or maybe you will be stopped coming all together.
Yes two years ago some felt it was best to allow the Argentine flights but today having managed to grow the economy beyond all expectations they dont need to be nice to the Argentine government any more.
Remember it is you who has much more to loose than the islanders.
If the Falklands decide to go ahead and extract the oil there is nothing Argentina can do about it legally.
So stop being the laughing stock and start repairing the damage you are doing to your own people. Oh once again I forgot you need the bounty of the Falklands wealth to achieve that.
Wonder what will the situation be once oil is all extracted and the islanders become billionaires.
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