Argentina has asked stock markets in New York and London to warn investors of its claim that five UK-listed oil firms were working illegally off the Falklands.
The country’s foreign minister, Hector Timerman, has sent letters to the directors of both markets, urging them to force any company involved in oil exploration near the islands to forewarn investors of potential civil and criminal penalties in Argentina, which claims “the Malvinas” as its own.
Details of the letter emerged yesterday after Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, accused the UK of ratcheting up tension over the islands’ disputed sovereignty. She added: “Argentina is always on the side of peace.”
The five explorers are: Argos Resources, Desire Petroleum, Falkland Oil and Gas (FOG), Borders and Southern Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration.
John Foster, managing director of Falkland Islands Holdings, which owns a minority share of FOG, said Argentina’s latest move in the current spat over the south Atlantic isles was “like baying at the moon”.
He added: “Investors are aware that Argentina is making noise but it’s really just noise. As a practical matter I don’t think it will have any impact.”
Rockhopper struck oil north of the islands last year and is looking for £1.26billion from investors to begin production.
Analysts have said that over its lifetime the field could deliver £6.6billion in taxes and royalties to the Falklands’ government.
Borders and Southern and FOG are drilling exploratory wells south and east of the islands this year, investing around £820,000 a day in the hope of a major discovery.
All five firms are small players in the oil industry and would need major partners to shift into production. Argentina’s government has sought to keep that from happening or at least make it more expensive by barring the companies from doing business in South America, and now by trying to cast doubt on the legality of the exploration. The New York exchange said it received Mr Timerman’s letter but had no comment.
Argentina has asserted its sovereignty over the islands ever since they came under UK control in 1833.
The two countries fought a war in 1982 that killed more than 900 people, and with April 2 marking the 30th anniversary of an Argentinean military incursion, both have engaged in an escalating war of words over their future.