Drilling for oil to start in Falkland Islands

Oil-Finder

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joewp

And for your entertainment, built in animosity exists between the nearby country that claims the islands and the former world super power that too claims them.

Oil-Finder

Y'know I read a history of Argentina a few years ago, and the author made an interesting point. Before the Falkland Islands War, in fact the Brits really didn't care all that much about the Falklands, and if the Argentines had merely asked them to start negotiating a gradual handover of the islands to Argentina, the Brits probably would have been open to the idea. But once the Argentines invaded, all of a sudden the Brits remembered that these islands even existed, and started paying attention to them. So, ironically, the Argentines would probably have had a better chance of getting the islands if they hadn't invaded than if they had.

Cabrone

You know we're in the brown stuff when Desire Petroleum actually start to do some drilling.

It's taken them 10 years since the last set of exploratory wells but at >$100 p.bbl even this bunch of slackers have woken up and smelt the coffee.

Valdemar

Assuming the company finds major deposits, Whitehall will care a lot more about the otherwise fairly desolate and no longer strategically important islands.

Going to war on the principle of them being our turf is justified, so a resource grab is a piece of cake to get people to accept.
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Plantagenet

This is great news!

Now if only the Brits could find oil just offshore from Gibralter.

Starvid

This one of the few remaining unexplored basins of any reasonable size (think North Sea) in the entire world. There could be some surprises. Smile

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Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

auscanman

It's a sign of desperation that places which up until now have been off limits for largely political reasons are being given the green light. Again, a sign that we in the western world would rather risk war than choose the necessary alternatives (decreased population, and simpler lifestyles). There's no way that Argentina won't insist on getting a chunk of the royalties from any oil that might be found. Chavez would undoubtedly come to Argentina's defence in the event of hostilities, as would all the other leftist South American leaders, and before long it would be the UK vs. almost all of South America.

On another note, it will be a shame if the unique and wonderful ecology of the Falklands is ruined.

Starvid

I guess the main reasons for not drilling off the Falklands has been due to cost issues, not political ones.

It's a harsh climate down there, and I'm sure the experience from the North Sea will prove invaluable.

Does anyone know what kind of geology they have down there?
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Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

dorlomin · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 05, 2007 Posts: 1001

Plantagenet

Oil-Finder

lawnchair · Intermediate Crude Joined: Oct 20, 2004 Posts: 722

Cost issues are a big one. Crappy weather and a *long* way from resupply. The part of Argentina that's a few hundred miles away has half the population density of Wyoming, and isn't friendly to the Falklands anyway. Any broken part is going to be a three-day multi-million dollar airlift at the best.
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DantesPeak

So they haven't drilled one test well in 10 years, yet they know there is 60 billion barrels there?

We have a test well in the Gulf of Mexico (Jack #2) which we know has signicant (but perhaps uneconomic) reserves of oil, but it has been impractical so far to begin regular drilling. This article gives us no idea of the obstacles to drilling faced here, which being in the ocean, I assume are greater than in the GOM.

joewp

The Telegraph giveth, and the Telegraph taketh away. Pump and dump anybody?

Telegraph