Argentina’s president has threatened legal action against Britain over an offshore oil project in the Falklands.
Javier Milei has set a two-week deadline for work to stop at Sea Lion, a field being developed by firms from the UK and Israel.
If drilling does not stop Argentina will ask the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a Hamburg-based maritime court, to order a temporary halt to the project.
Mr Milei’s threats represent a major escalation in a clash over resources that could transform the economy of the sparsely populated South Atlantic archipelago.
He has made repeated statements claiming ownership of the Falklands for his country, which calls the islands ‘Las Malvinas’.
A presidential statement said that Argentina would not ‘stand idly by’ while Britain caused ‘irreversible and irreparable’ harm with the oil field.
Sea Lion, which is being developed by Israel’s Navitas Petroleum and Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration, is expected to start pumping oil in 2028.
Corporation tax revenues and royalties generated by the oil field are expected to transform the Falklands’ economy.
The islands’ government has also pledged to contribute to its own security costs from the windfall, thereby reducing the £500million Britain spends each year to protect the Overseas Territory.
The territory’s gross domestic product is predicted to triple, hundreds of jobs will be created, and it will become energy self-sufficient.
The tribunal, an independent court established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, can issue legally binding emergency orders.
But even if it ordered the UK to halt the project, being developed by Israel’s Navitas Petroleum and Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration, it has no means of forcing the government to comply.
The UK rejects Argentina’s sovereignty claim, arguing that the islanders have the right to determine their own future and develop their natural resources.
Argentine president Javier Milei has threatened legal action against Britain over an offshore oil project in the Falklands
In a referendum in 2013, residents of the Falklands voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory. Argentina says the islands were populated illegally.
Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno praised Milei’s move as ‘a historic and unprecedented step’ in Argentina’s nearly two-century campaign to secure sovereignty over the archipelago.
‘Whoever explores or exploits our natural resources in the Malvinas without Argentine authorisation must face the consequences,’ he wrote on X, using Argentina’s name for the islands.
But critics accuse the Argentine president of using the sovereignty claim – one of the few causes in Argentina that cuts across the country’s stark political lines – to bolster flagging public support ahead of next year’s election as the economy falters.
Milei, a self-described ‘anarcho-capitalist,’ initially drew scorn from his nationalist opponents for his conciliatory stance toward Britain and professed admiration for Margaret Thatcher, the wartime prime minister loathed in Argentina for ordering the islands’ recapture.
The brief but bloody war, which erupted when the Argentine military dictatorship invaded the archipelago in 1982, killed 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service members and three islanders.
But Milei has taken an increasingly confrontational stance as oil production near the islands approaches its anticipated start in 2028 and US President Donald Trump, a close ally of the Argentine leader, suggests he could reconsider Washington’s long-standing neutrality in the dispute.
Last week, Milei dedicated much of his UN General Assembly speech to Argentina’s sovereignty claim, accusing the international body of neglecting the Falklands dispute and denouncing the oil project as an illegal exploitation of Argentine resources.
He has threatened sanctions that would bar companies drilling around the Falklands from operating in Argentina’s booming oil and mining sectors.
His government has sent Congress a bill proposing prison terms of up to 20 years for extracting resources around the islands without Argentine authorisation and extending penalties to fishing, the bedrock of the islands’ economy.
Argentine authorities say they are investigating at least 60 companies and executives for possible violations.
An Argentine judge this month also ordered a halt to work on Sea Lion pending an environmental review.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
