Argentina announced it has launched a sanctions process against several foreign oil companies, the UK based Chrysaor Holdings Ltd, Harbor Energy Plc, and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum for involvement in hydrocarbons activities, with illegitimate Falkland Islands licenses, in the Argentine continental shelf, more precisely at the Sea Lion project in North Malvinas basin.
The announcement was made by Daniel Filmus Secretary of Malvinas and Antarctica and Energy Secretary Darío Martinez appealing to Argentine legislation, Law 26.659, which obliges oil companies to have Argentine licenses and if not they will be sanctioned with five to twenty years disqualification to operate in Argentina.
“The companies are not authorized to operate nor have they requested authorization and that is why we started this process, which has to do with notification and sanctions. The Ministry of Energy provided the technical knowledge and records and then the Foreign Ministry will continue with the claims,” Martínez explained.
Filmus also highlighted that these companies were served discouragement notes last year but they carried on nevertheless. He also pointed out that Argentina’s actions in this regard have been backed by multilateral organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), Mercosur and the Ibero-American Summit.
(Source: Mercopress)