Argentina in threat to Falkland oil firms

ARGENTINA has threatened to take legal action against British companies involved in oil development in the Falkland Islands in a move described by the Foreign Office as “wholly counter-productive”.

The country’s foreign minister Hector Timerman said there would be “administrative, civil and criminal” penalties against the companies involved.

He said “the resources of the South Atlantic are the property of all the Argentines”, including any oil found off the shores of the islands.

A UK Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “These latest attempts to damage the economic livelihoods of the Falkland Islands people regrettably reflect a pattern of behaviour by the Argentine government.” Rockhopper Exploration, based in Salisbury, Wiltshire, is the only company so far to strike oil.