A recent headline in The Guardian brings the Falkand islands back to our attention:
Falkland Islands: Premier Oil plan leads UK and Argentina to new dispute
Britain put itself on a collision course with Argentina over the disputed sovereignty of the Falkland Islands when it gave explicit support to a £600m plan to develop oil reserves in the south Atlantic on Wednesday.
Barely three weeks since the two countries clashed over the issue at a G20 summit, and 30 years on from the military conflict on the islands, the Foreign Office has made it clear that hydrocarbons exploration in the area is a legitimate business.
I covered this same story back in July 2010 with a post titled Oil Discovery in Falklands and ended that post with the following:
After reviewing the available data on production and consumption we now have a better understanding of the importance of the Falklands to both these nations. The UK is (or at least should be) increasingly desperate to secure fresh supplies of oil as North Sea production peters out. Argentina, on the other hand, is staring at declining income from oil exports as existing fields deplete. Whether Argentina allows the British to proceed unchallenged in the development of what many Argentines still consider Argentina’s patrimony is very much in doubt.
Best Hopes for a non-violent resolution to the upcoming dispute.
In the intervening two years, the UK has indeed become somewhat desperate while Argentina has become more bold about protecting their patrimony. (see Argentina nationalizes oil company YPF)
These plots from the recently updated Energy Export databrowser show why:
The UK and Argentina are now both net importers of crude oil. (And of natural gas and coal if you bother to look.)
Allow me to repeat myself:
Best Hopes for a non-violent resolution to the upcoming dispute.
Related Headlines
- Argentina to Require State Approval for Private Oil Investment (Bloomberg, July 27, 2010)