Argentina plans to participate, in cooperation with U.K. plans, in oil and gas exploration in the South Atlantic Ocean off the Falkland Islands.
In a press conference last week, Argentine President Carlos Menem said the two nations could resolve their differences as "allies" on sovereignty over the islands, believed highly prospective for oil and gas.
His comments apparently were intended to defuse a diplomatic incident sparked by the U.K. government's decision last month to authorize initial exploration studies and eventually open bidding for oil and gas concessions off the Falklands, a U.K. administered territory.
The Falklands government issued a tender Sept. 22 for seismic surveys in the area claimed by the U.K.
Argentina's foreign ministry then accused the U.K. of infringing on its sovereignty.
Deadline for bids under the Falklands government tender for seismic work is Oct. 16.
An information package outlining bid procedures, license terms, and an application form is available from the British Geological Survey, Edinburgh. The agency is reviewing applications this month.
The government expects to award licenses for seismic surveys in November, with seismic surveys expected to get under way during the austral summer.
BACKGROUND
Argentina, which still claims the islands it calls the Malvinas, went to war with the U.K. in 1982 over the islands, about 650 km off Argentina's eastern coast.
The U.K. won the war and retains control over the islands. Negotiations on sovereignty of the islands remain frozen under a 1990 agreement in Madrid that also reestablished diplomatic relations between the two nations.
The U.K. government last November designated as U.K. territory the continental shelf around the Falklands to a distance of 200 nautical miles. Argentina reaffirmed its territorial claim at the time to include much of the continental shelf around the Falklands.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES
In response to the U.K. step last month, Argentina's foreign ministry reaffirmed Argentine sovereignty over the Falkands/Malvinas, South Georgia, and Sandwich Islands and surrounding waters, adding the government was opening new areas to oil and gas exploration by domestic and foreign companies in the South Atlantic west and north of the Falklands.
That led to a meeting on the issue at the United Nations between Argentine Foreign Minister Guido di Tella and British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Tristan Garel-Jones, Argentine press agency Telam reported.
U.K. officials said if hydrocarbons are found in the Falklands, cooperation with Argentina must be agreed upon in order to continue exploration, Telam reported. Garel-Jones told di Tella the U.K. government won't block Argentine companies from participating in exploration off the Falklands.
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