
Representatives from Rockhopper Exploration are visiting the Falkland Islands this week. The company took over the rig Ocean Guardian from Desire on completion of their well, and Rockhopper’s well 14/10-3 (Sea Lion North) was spudded on January 13.

Argentina has recently stepped up pressure on Britain over the Falklands by criticising British actions as “unilateral” and hence a breach of UN Resolution 31/49. This article places this current phase of the Falklands dispute in perspective and considers which side’s unilateral acts have been more significant.

The Falkland Islands Government has sent letters to the leaders of Australia and Brazil following the devastating floods the two countries have undergone recently.

FOGL, the oil and gas exploration company is pleased to announce an exploration update with respect to its licence interests offshore the Falkland Islands and in particular to its 100% owned and operated southern licences. FOGL also holds a 49% interest in licences collectively referred to as the northern licences in which BHP Billiton holds 51% and is operator.

FALKLAND Oil and Gas Limited has the potential to offer investors returns of 130 per cent in the medium term, according to the Jefferies brokerage.

The Royal Navy has revealed it is replacing flood-damaged HMS Endurance with an icebreaker to be named HMS Protector.

A SECOND phase of de-mining is planned on the Falkland Islands from November this year.

THE planned increased use of containers for the shipment of fish, meat and wool received a blow this week with the news that the Islands’ only shipping service to South America is to end.

Argentina reaffirmed Monday its “imprescriptible” sovereignty rights over the Malvinas and other South Atlantic islands and considers “incomprehensible” the British negative to find a peaceful and definitive solution to the controversy as mandated by the international community.

The American Government kept a close eye on the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands in 2010. Hitherto secret US State Department communications published by Wikileaks reveal that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton wrote to the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires in early 2010, requesting analysis of the situation, which it was felt had been exacerbated by the British approval to search for oil in the seas off the islands, and by a revitalised and bitter diplomatic offensive by the government of President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner.