http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/money/4077559/US-firms-1bn-for-Falklands-oil.html
By STEVE HAWKES, Business Editor
Published: Today 22nd Jan 2012
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AN AMERICAN energy giant with links to the Pentagon is poised to spend at least £1billion on the British oil rush in the FALKLANDS.
A deal would transform the political stand-off between Downing Street and Argentina over the future of the islands.
Four execs from Houston-based Anadarko flew to Port Stanley last week to meet with Rockhopper, a UK explorer that's struck 700 million barrels of "black gold" off the Falklands' north coast.
The private jet landed Wednesday and parked at the military airbase.
Sources claim Anadarko made a provisional offer to invest in Rockhopper's mammoth discovery and develop it.
One told The Sun: "A deal has been tabled.
"Anadarko has got approval to do this from the highest levels in the US.
"And they've been reassured the British will stand by the islands."
The US giant's board of directors include Kevin Chilton - a former commander of US Strategic Command. Another, Preston M "Pete" Geren III, was in the US Department of Defence for much of the last decade.
If the deal goes ahead, American involvement would be a hammer blow to Argentina, a huge coup for David Cameron and change the lives of the Falklands' 3,000 islanders.
Argentine president Cristina Kirchner has been outraged by the British oil campaign in the Falklands - restating Argentina's rights to "Las Malvinas".
In a show of solidarity most South American countries have now banned ships doing work in the Falkands from docking at their ports.
PM David Cameron blasted Buenos Aires last week for "colonialism".
The support of Anadarko would be tacit approval to UK sovereignty and complete the Falklands' switch from farming outpost to the latest frontier in the world's multibillion-dollar oil industry.
No major discovery had been made in the region before Rockhopper's "Sea Lion" discovery 100km to the north of the islands in mid-2010.
Since then it claims to have also discovered a gas field and a smaller oil field.
Despite the war of words with Argentina, SIX energy companies have approached Rockhopper as it wants to bring in a partner by the end of March to develop its Sea Lion discovery and pump millions of barrels to the surface.
Two are British, Cairn Energy and Premier Oil, the rest are also American, Hess, Noble and Murphy.
But Anadarko is by far the biggest - worth $40 billion. It was a minority partner with BP on the disastrous Deepwater Horizon blast in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rockhopper last year said it needed to raise £1.3 billion to develop its Sea Lion field.
It plans to bring the oil to the surface via a drilling rig on a tanker that would moor in the ocean. This would have the capacity to store up to 3 million barrels of crude.
A final decision on which partner Rockhopper chooses is likely in the next eight weeks.
The company refused to comment yesterday.
Could this be why production has moved forward 2 years?we have a partner with very deep pockets.