In brief
Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has demanded that the United Kingdom halt the Sea Lion oilfield project off the Falkland Islands, or face international arbitration. The joint venture between Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum has licences from the UK, but Milei accuses it of illegal exploitation. The claim comes amid enduring sovereignty tensions, following the 1982 war that saw British forces repel Argentine occupiers. If the deadline isn’t met, Argentina will seek adjudication at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. The UK Defence Secretary has dismissed Argentina’s military ambitions as impossible.
Argentina’s president has threatened legal action against the UK unless it ceases oil exploration around the Falkland Islands.
In a social media post, President Javier Milei set a two‑week deadline for the Sea Lion oilfield project, a joint venture between Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum, to be scrapped. The two companies maintain that they hold valid licences issued by the UK.
The comments echo long‑standing tensions between Buenos Aires and London over the archipelago’s sovereignty, known in Argentina as Las Malvinas. The dispute dates back to the 1982 war in which a British task force expelled Argentine forces after they had occupied the islands.
Milei warned that, if the deadline was missed, he had instructed the Foreign Ministry and legal teams to launch international arbitration against the UK, describing the Sea Lion project as an “illegal plundering” of Argentine resources. He also said that any ongoing exploitation would be taken to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
Argentina’s claim comes after Milei’s harsh critique of the United Nations at the 81st UN General Assembly, where he called the body a “useless organisation.” The UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting responded, calling Argentina’s claim that it could seize the islands by force “incompetent.”
The Sea Lion field lies about 130 miles (209 km) off the Falkland Islands and is estimated to hold around 1.7 billion barrels of oil. Two oil companies plan to start extraction within the next two years, but Argentina insists the project violates its sovereignty and the relevant international law.
