FALKLAND OIL
From Bloody Rags to Black Riches
By Susanne Koelbl
60 billion barrels of oil lie under the ocean around the Falkland Islands, say experts. Twenty years after the war in the South Atlantic, the islands have struck it rich. But who does the oil belong to? Argentina continues to eye the archipeligo even as British oil companies start moving in for the drill.
AP
The British flag still flies over the Falkland Islands just like it did before the 1984 war.
It's a glorious summer day on the Bay of Fitzroy. The deep blue waters of Port Pleasant fjord shimmer in the bright midday sun, as a formation of gray-headed geese rises into the sky above the distant hills. It's a peaceful, idyllic scene.
Billy Baynham, 46, doesn't notice. An entirely different scene is running through his mind as he gazes out at the bay -- a scene from 20 years ago: An Argentine Skyhawk fighter jet swoops low over the surface of the bay and discharges its belly full of bombs onto the British landing craft "Sir Galahad," lying at anchor in the bay. Within seconds, the vessel is transformed into a raging fireball as the ship's cargo -- tons of ammunition and weapons -- goes up in violent detonation. Michael Dunphy -- a thin, quiet, 22-year-old from Wales and a member of the First Welsh Guards -- is one of the 47 crew members who perish on that day.
The memory triggers irrational feelings of guilt to well up inside of Bahnham. "Why him, why not me?" he implores. His powerful 6'6" figure shakes as he kneels, weeping, on the hard tufts of grass that grow along Fitzroy's shoreline. Today, Baynham has returned for the first time to this place where he and Dunphy fought against the Argentines, more than 22 years ago. He has been haunted by the bloody images of that battle -- fought in one of the most remote corners of the world -- ever since.
On April 2, 1984, Argentine dictator Leopoldo Galtieri ordered his troops to occupy the archipelago, about 375 miles over the Atlantic Ocean from Buenos Aires. In response, then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched the largest British fleet assembled since the end of World War II. Its mission? To liberate the 1,800 inhabitants of the Falkland Islands, a barren collection of rocky islets governed by the British Empire since 1835. Together, the two sides lost about a thousand troops, or more than half the territory's population. The war -- like the Falklands themselves -- was quickly forgotten by the rest of the world.
60 Billion Barrels
Now, 20 years later, the islands are once again creeping into the world's conscious. And this time, the Falklands' reputation is not dependent on the geo-political real-politicking of world leaders, but rather is being spread by people like Phyl Rendell, 55, the Falkland Islands' Minister of Raw Materials. The island territory is still connected closely with London, but when Rendall travels there, she doesn't meet with strategists and generals, rather she negotiates with scientists, oil experts, politicians and market speculators.
Her most important asset is a dark, viscous liquid encased in a transparent plexiglass cube on her conference table. "Falkland oil," says Rendell. Rendell, who has a degree in history, is well aware of the potential the liquid in this small container holds for the Falklands: prosperity and independence for entire generations of Falklanders who, ever since settling on the barren islands, have consistently been faced with the dual threats of poverty and war, and have been forced to accept domination by their British colonial masters. But things are changing. The small group of islands, home to 750,000 penguins, 600,000 sheep, and all of 2,934 people, now stands a chance of becoming the "new Kuwait," as the Times of London wrote. And that's exactly what Rendell has in mind.
The future of the waters around the Falkland Islands: 60 billion barrels of oil.
The Falklands, an almost forgotten place since the 1984 war, returned to the limelight when the price of oil broke the $40 per barrel mark earlier this year. Prospectors and speculators were suddenly interested in what may be one of the world's last untapped reservoirs of oil.
Experts from the renowned, Edinburgh-based British Geological Survey have long believed that enormous oil reserves, possibly up to 60 billion barrels, lie beneath the deep waters surrounding the Falklands. If this estimate is correct, the islands' oil reserves would almost equal those of Libya and Nigeria combined, and even amount to half the Iraqi reserves. The astronomical estimate is the result of a study conducted by geologist Phil Richards, who has been researching the Falklands' potential oil reserves for the past 15 years. "I am convinced that these figures are correct," he says.
The Falkland Islands deposits aren't even mentioned in the lists of known oil reserves kept by the oil giants Shell, BP and Exxon. These multinationals, known in industry parlance as the majors, already have their hands full in regions such as West Africa, the Brazilian coastal waters and the Caspian Sea. Until now, searching for black gold in the rough and deep seas (up to 10,000 feet) of the South Atlantic seemed too complex and expensive, as well as being a highly speculative proposition. It's a risk the major corporations prefer to hand over to smaller oil exploration outfits. After all, if the venture turns out to be unsuccessful, the majors won't have incurred any costs. But if the prospectors make a strike, they'll be quick to move in.
DPA
Wool is still one of the main products produced on the islands.
If the British geologists are right, this may be the right time to start drilling for oil in the Falklands. Whereas terrorist attacks on oil pipelines and pumping stations make the Middle East an increasingly unreliable permanent source of energy, terrorism is not a problem on the Falklands. Oil minister Rendell has, in fact, already granted drilling rights for large areas surrounding the islands. British oil companies plan to begin boring into the sea floor as early as next year. They calculate that the future wells will be profitable even at a world oil price of $25 a barrel.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,334165,00.html