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Argentina to press regulators over oil company assets
Argentina's foreign minister said he would press regulators in the UK and US to help it seize assets from oil companies
Argentina has ratcheted up the pressure on oil companies operating in the Falkland Islands after the country’s foreign minister said it would press British and American regulators to help it seize firms’ assets.
Hector Timerman said on Sunday that will formally request that stock exchange regulators in London and New York act on a federal judge’s order to seize $156m in bank accounts and other assets from the oil explorers.
It came after Lilian Herraez, a federal judge in Tierra del Fuego, ordered that assets of three British firms - Premier Oil, Falkland Oil and Gas, and Rockhopper Exploration - as well as Noble Energy and Edison International be seized as Argentina steps up its campaign over oil exploration in the Falklands.
Oil exploration began in waters off the Falklands five years ago and has angered Buenos Aires. Argentina still claims sovereignty over the islands, which Britain fought to defend in the 1982 conflict.
The judge’s ruling is the latest twist in the long-running dispute that Buenos Aires has with the oil firms.
However, given the companies typically do not keep assets in Argentine territory, it is unclear how enforceable the judge’s ruling is in practice.
In April, Buenos Aires threatened to sue the three British oil companies and also sought to extradite their executives.
The South Atlantic islands could be a potentially lucrative source of crude, with estimates suggesting that some 1bn barrels of recoverable oil may be beneath the waters around the Falklands.