MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands government extends all offshore oil licences for five years

Portfolio holder for Trade, Industry, and Mineral Resources MLA Cheryl Roberts

The Falkland Islands Government announced on Monday the extension of all existing offshore hydrocarbons production licences, for an initial period of five years with a further two optional years at its discretion, and said the decision has “the full support of the UK Government”.

The licences, all currently in the exploration term, will be subject to satisfactory progress by licensees against their work programmes. The Department of Mineral Resources is now working with holders on enhanced work programmes for the extension period, including commitments to drilling additional appraisal wells. The statement did not specify how many licences are covered or who holds them; registered holders include Rockhopper Exploration, with subsidiaries Falkland Oil & Gas and Desire Petroleum, and Navitas Petroleum Development and Production.

The announcement comes at a moment shaped by the calendar: the PL001 licence was due to expire on December 31 this year, and its partners had been negotiating an extension with the archipelago's government since early 2026.

Separately, the government approved the acquisition by Navitas Petroleum Atlantic Limited of a 65% stake in licence area PL001, a deal announced on March 2 that had been awaiting this authorisation. JHI Associates retains the remaining 35% through its subsidiary JHI Falkland. The block covers some 1,126 square kilometres in around 500 metres of water and borders PL032 to the west, where the Sea Lion project is being developed. JHI estimates its combined prospects at 3.1 billion barrels, with Tyche and Dinlas at around 400 million recoverable barrels each; these are company estimates, not independently verified.

MLA Cheryl Roberts, portfolio holder for Trade, Industry and Mineral Resources, said the extensions “provide security to operators, enabling them to continue to invest and develop their acreage”. She added: “These are our resources to develop, and we will ensure they are developed responsibly, in line with best global practice with regards to environmental and safety standards, in order to deliver long-term benefits to current, and future generations of Falkland Islanders.”

The move comes six days after the Foreign Office published guidance backing companies operating in the archipelago, and three days after Britain's Minister for the Overseas Territories, Uma Kumaran, described Argentine proceedings against those companies as “unacceptable”.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the archipelago and maintains that licences granted by the Falkland Islands Government are invalid. It has 60 administrative proceedings open with no penalty applied, three criminal complaints covering ten companies and their directors, and on Thursday sent Congress a bill extending prohibitions to all natural resources on the continental shelf. None of the allegations has been proven. In the 2013 referendum, 99.8% of voters chose to retain the status of a British overseas territory.