Falkland Islands' oil and gas industry is making steady advancement in spite of global concerns about falling prices, according to new analysis by GlobalData. With positive signs coming from the neighboring Argentina, which recently witnessed a change in government, the Falklands is preparing to commercialize production of its first oil project, Premier Oil's Sea Lion.
For the first six months of the 2015/16 financial year, the Falkland Islands Government is showing a Medium Term Financial Plan surplus of £4.355 million compared to a revised budget surplus of £30,000; a favorable performance of £4.325 million.(*)
Bristow has added a new hangar and modular offices at Stanley Airport in the Falkland Islands to help improve operational efficiencies for oil and gas commercial services and search and rescue (SAR) support.
The latest Mercosur summit, held last week in Brazil included a special statement, --besides the main regular declaration with 69 articles--, blasting the UK for violating international law and Argentine domestic law over the exploration of hydrocarbons in the Argentine continental shelf in proximity of the Malvinas Islands.
The Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly received on Tuesday the Appropriation Bill which allows for expenditure of £61.4M pounds in the fiscal year 2015/16, supported by revenues of £56.9M and a projected £4.9M from oil and gas exploration, thus completing another surplus year.
The Falkland Islands economy has witnessed impressive, although volatile, growth in recent years with unemployment rates low enough to be the envy of most countries in the world and the government is free of debt, according to the latest State of the Economy released by the Falklands Policy Unit.
The elected government of the Falkland Islands has strongly refuted remarks by Argentine official 'Malvinas Secretary' Daniel Filmus, published in The Guardian, in which he states that hydrocarbons activities in the Falklands are environmentally reckless, and describes Filmus words as “yet another example of the Argentine's government futile efforts to damage the Falklands economy”
Britain's Premier Oil said it was seeking a partner for an oil development in the Falkland Islands in order to reduce its exposure to the 5.2 billion dollar project and make higher payouts to shareholders.
Argentina formally rejected on Tuesday the United Kingdom's 16 December protest against the latest Argentine hydrocarbons legislation which seeks to criminalize oil industry activities in Falklands/Malvinas Islands waters and which London argues is not applicable to the Islands.
Falkland Islands lawmaker Mike Summers cautioned at the latest meeting of the Legislative Assembly that a period of extensive change was inevitable for the Islands since the advent of the hydrocarbons industry would change the size of things and to some extent the nature of the community.