Argentine President Javier Milei said Monday that he had instructed his foreign ministry and government lawyers to begin international arbitration against the United Kingdom over the Sea Lion oil project in the basin north of the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, according to MercoPress (opens in new tab) and Anadolu Agency. He gave London two weeks to halt the activity before Argentina turns to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
“I instructed the foreign ministry and our legal teams to begin international arbitration against the United Kingdom for the illegal plundering of our resources through the Sea Lion Project in the North Malvinas Basin. If in 2 weeks the United Kingdom does not stop the illegitimate exploitation, we will go to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea,” Milei wrote on X, in MercoPress (opens in new tab)’s translation. The BBC described the arbitration as the step Argentina would take if the two-week deadline was not met, while MercoPress (opens in new tab) and Anadolu reported it as already ordered.
According to a statement from Argentina’s Office of the President cited by MercoPress (opens in new tab), the government is using the procedure in Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which both countries are party. That process formally begins when one side sends the other a written notification of its claim, and MercoPress (opens in new tab) said there was no record that such a notification had been sent. Argentina demanded that Britain act within the deadline to prevent the start or continuation of oil and gas exploitation and refrain from granting new permits, MercoPress (opens in new tab) reported. If it does not, Argentina says it will ask the Hamburg tribunal for provisional measures, which the tribunal can order while an arbitral panel is being formed if it finds the panel would have jurisdiction on a prima facie basis, according to MercoPress (opens in new tab).
Argentina bases its position on UN General Assembly resolutions 2065 and 31/49, which recognized a sovereignty dispute, urged the two countries to negotiate and called on them to avoid unilateral changes, MercoPress (opens in new tab) reported, noting that the resolutions have the status of recommendations. The Argentine government argues that the exploitation causes “irreversible and irreparable harm” to its rights, according to MercoPress (opens in new tab). The Argentine Foreign Ministry recently filed a formal protest with the British Embassy in Buenos Aires over the extension of offshore oil and gas licences around the islands, Anadolu reported.
Britain and the operators maintain that the project is lawful. The companies behind Sea Lion, Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration and Israel’s Navitas Petroleum, say they have valid licences, according to the BBC, which said they have stressed that the licences come from the Falkland Islands. MercoPress (opens in new tab) reported that London says it has no doubt about its sovereignty, that Argentine law does not apply on the islands and that oil and gas activity is governed by local legislation in line with the same convention. MercoPress (opens in new tab) said there was no specific British response to Monday’s announcement, and that the companies expect no change to a timetable that puts first production in the first half of 2028.
The oilfield lies about 130 miles (209 km) from the Falkland Islands and contains an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of oil, according to the BBC. The announcement follows Milei’s speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he criticized the United Nations for failing to act on the islands’ sovereignty, the BBC reported. In a 2013 referendum, 99.8% of voters on the islands backed remaining a British overseas territory, the BBC said; Argentina’s government maintains that the referendum has no legal validity, according to MercoPress (opens in new tab). The two countries fought a 74-day war over the islands in 1982.