Chile Forum

admin wrote:Yea, hope their stupidity does not make Chile guilty by association economically. Ultimately, the consistent stupidity helps Chile, just it freeks out wall street when the neighbors get aggressive about anything. This time however I think it is just doing a super job of highlighting the differences between Chile and Argentina. Chile enters the OECD, and Argentina enters a war with a super power and its central bank at the same time. himmmmm

So as as the sound of political sabre rattling returns to the South Atlantic, could we repeat that success today? I'm not doubting the resolve of our armed forces - our soldiers, sailors and airmen have a long and proud track record of plucking success from adversity - but I'm sorry to say that we no longer have the ships and equipment to launch a sea-borne attack on an enemy on the other side of the world

anyone got a good map of just where the disputed area is located? I am just curious how close to shore it is.

Repsol (REP 22.69, +0.26, +1.16%) said Thursday it plans to start drilling in the Malvinas Basin in Argentine territorial waters.
The Spanish oil major's Argentine unit, YPF, is the lead operator. YPF, Petrobras (PBR 42.61, +0.75, +1.79%) and Panamerican Energy each owns a third of the consortium.
This week, a British oil rig sent by Desire Petroleum Plc (UK:DES 107.50, +0.50, +0.47%) began drilling in disputed waters off the coast of the Falklands.
Rockhopper Exploration Plc (UK:RKH 61.00, -0.75, -1.21%) , a company formed to seek oil in the Falklands, plans to begin drilling in about a month.
BHP Billiton (BHP 73.33, +0.89, +1.23%) is working with Falkland Oil & Gas Ltd. (UK:FOGL 154.00, -3.00, -1.92%) on drilling programs in the region.
Borders & Southern Petroleum Plc (UK:BOR 63.00, +3.00, +5.00%) , which also holds drilling rights off the Falklands, is moving ahead with plans for three wells.
Rockhopper, which has been expanding on Royal Dutch Shell's knowledge base, said an independent study of its acreage yielded an estimate of a potential 1 billion to 2.8 billion barrels of oil in acreage it controls in the region.
"Further work on the prospectivity of Shell's 1998 drilling program, through extensive three dimensional seismic evaluations, has led to newfound optimism in the region, and has resulted in the relative buoyancy of Rockhopper's share price (in the U.K.),"

greg~judy wrote:OK... anyone perverse enough to start dabbling in the stock plays here.
......

A fact often dismissed by the British is that the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht signed by the UK and Spain (among other European powers), gave Spain continued control of her colonies in the Americas, including all adjacent islands. Simply put, the UK gave up any claims to the Malvinas/Falklands Islands to Spain by signed treaty. The islands then became part of Spain's Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. When Argentina declared independence from Spain and became The United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, it claimed all territories previously administered by the Viceroyalty. In 1825, the UK recognized the newly formed Republic, which included territorial recognition. In 1833 the UK takes over the Malvinas/Falklands not because it retained some form of claim at that time, but rather because it could. The UK was at the height of imperial expansion and it went around the world taking whatever it wanted. That simple. Argentina never gave up its claim to the islands. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Argentina and the UK became very close allies and it was expected by both nations that the islands would be returned to Argentina somewhere along the line. In fact, until the early 1970s, the UK proposed the return of the islands to Argentina to the islanders, who did not want to become part of Argentina. Who could blame them? Does anyone want to join a country often ruled by military dictators? But still, the UK was proposing this to the islanders. In 1976 the UK decided not to return the islands after becoming aware of vast deposits of oil on the Malvinas/Falklands basin. The UK claims that they are simply looking after the interest of the islanders. Well, this is coming from the same nation that expelled all inhabitants out of Diego Garcia and gave the islands the USA to build a military base. Bottom line, this is one of the many front lines in the battle over natural resources. If there was no oil and no strategic access to Antarctica, I truly believe that UK would have returned the islands by now. As for the islanders, I'm sure they would be welcomed in the UK.

FrankPintor wrote:Actually, at some level I expect the Argentineans did learn... and actually there wasn't a whole lot to learn considering how close they came to winning the islands last time around. Basically all they had to do was declare war (or make their move) 2-3 months later than they did, just before the South Atlantic winter made military action impossible. They couldn't because growing unrest in Argentina forced the dictatorship's hand, and because of that the extension to the airfield at Stanley couldn't be finished (it was being fabricated in Argentina)... which meant that when war broke out, the Argentinean air force found itself operating at the limit of its range, without being able to land and refuel on the islands... in winter in the South Atlantic, which should have been to the Argentineans' advantage (i.e. strike, capture, and have the weather shut everything down... there would have been no more military action for several months). I shared a beer with more than one English contractor who suddenly found himself at sea when Maggie ordered her navy to set sail, and they agreed (with graphic demonstrations of jets in flight over a table full of beers) that the courage and skill shown by the Argentinean pilots was amazing, not simply in launching missiles, but in evading them, and even with the incompetent leadership of Galtieri came close to making it count for Argentina.

Argentina knows that for 4-6 long months of the year the Malvinas can't be resupplied... so does the UK. I guess it's a question of when, and on which terms, not if...

OK... anyone perverse enough to start dabbling in the stock plays here.
Let's see some money, where mouths are...
Who will be the first to jump into the UK exploration market -
- to declare short/long positions on any/all of the players below????

...a British oil rig sent by Desire Petroleum Plc (UK:DES 107.50, +0.50, +0.47%) began drilling in disputed waters off the coast of the Falklands

Shares in Desire Petroleum have almost halved (51.00) after the oil explorer said a well being drilled off the Falkland Islands may not be economically viable.