The area where the platform has allegedly been spotted, located in Argentine territorial waters.
The Malvinas issue has taken another turn, which could heighten diplomatic tension regarding sovereignty between Argentina and Britain after one of the drilling platforms hired by a Malvinas company was found exploring in Argentine waters on Thursday.
The Leiv Eiriksson platform bears the Bahamas flag and was contracted by Borders & Southern Plc and Falkland Oil and Gas Ltd and can be added to the same list as the Ocean Guardian, the oil rig hired by Rockhopper Exploration Plc which has been exploring to the north of the islands since 2010.
The Leiv Eiriksson, which is 120 metres long and 86 metres high, moves with the support of two ships: the Toisa Intrepid and the multipurpose Toisa Sonat.
At the end of last month, the Leiv Eiriksson was located very close to 200 miles from the Argentine continental shelf, which caused alarm among local authorities.
However, in recent days both the Leiv Eiriksson and its accompanying vessels have violated the borders of what Argentina denominates the nation’s Economic Exclusion Zone.
Its mission, according to the oil company, is to drill two deep wells to the south and southeast of the archipelago, at the edge of Argentina’s national territory.
According to what Ambito.com could learn, the platform advanced between 8-10 nautical miles beyond the pre-determined limits, to 190 miles off the Argentine coast.
The oil rig and companion ships spent over 90 hours in that location exploring or carrying out exploratory tasks, which led to speculation that the company is considering a third well, located within Argentine territorial waters. Irrefutable satellite images show that on Wednesday the platform was located at the coordinates -53°59’54’7 south -58°76’51’1 west. However, by midday yesterday it had retreated and briefly sailed toward the Islands before dropping anchor at 53°35’44’63 south and 58°45’55’13 west.According to sources with access to the Mompesat satellite monitoring system, the positioning of the platform was brought to the attention of the authorities.
«In recent months we detected that they were on the point of violating our economic exclusion zone and for this reason we have been constantly monitoring,» said the source.
Meanwhile, sources linked to the Foreign Ministry confirmed that this is not the first time that an oil rig violates the zone limits, although it is the first time that this has happened since the diplomatic conflict bubbled to the surface in January. According to those sources, the Ocean Guardian, exploring to the north of the archipelago since 2010 is also positioned within Argentina’s continental shelf.
The same sources also stressed that Argentina has often protested to the United Kingdom and that organizations like the UNASUR, CELAC and the UN Convention on Rights to the Sea (CONVEMAR) have often been notified of these infractions.
«This exploration is illegal. The coastal state which should be providing exploration licences for this area is Argentina and not the United Kingdom,» revealed a source. Argentina also sent notes of discouragement to the companies involved — both the oil companies as well as the accompanying ships and support vessels.
The real conflict between Great Britain and Argentina is that they do not agree on the limitations of the continental shelf. For the Argentine state, according to the presentation by COPLA (National Committee for the Limit of the Continental Shelf) to the United Nations, «the continental shelf of a bordering state includes the sea bed and sub-marine layers which extend beyond its territorial sea and across the length of the natural extension of its territory to the outer border of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 miles counted from the base lines from which the borders of the territorial sea are measured, when the outer border of the continental margin does not reach the same distance.»
However, this position conflicts with the United Kingdom, who, taking the «bordering state» to be the Malvinas Islands, consider a large part of the waters around the islands to be their exclusion zone
buenosairesherald.com