http://www.falklands-oil.com/

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk

http://www.argosresources.com/




Rockhopper was established in 2004 with a strategy to invest in and undertake an offshore oil exploration programme in the North Falkland Basin. It was floated on AIM in August 2005. Rockhopper was the first company to make a commercial oil discovery in the Falklands. Today Rockhopper is the largest acreage holder in the North Falkland Basin, with interests in the Greater Mediterranean region.

What a great slap in the face for Kirchner, mind you she looks as if she has had a few already.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304432704577347801235907294.html

Argentina to Seek Controlling Stake in YPF

Kirchner has lost the plot in my view,she has shot her self in the foot,Who is going to invest in Argentina now? going to get nasty here

related news nothing much lol...GLA

16 April 2012 Last updated at 17:48

Argentina to expropriate Repsol oil subsidiary YPF

The Argentine government will seize a controlling interest in oil company YPF owned by Spanish firm Repsol.

President Cristina Fernandez said a bill will be presented to the Senate allowing the government to expropriate 51% of YPF shares.

The move, announced on national television, was welcomed by her cabinet and Argentine governors.

Spain and the EU have already expressed concern at such a state takeover of YPF, in which Repsol has a 57.4% stake.

Announcing the move, President Fernandez said energy was a "vital resource". Of the seized shares, the state will hold 51% and the country's oil-producing provinces will get 49%.

Shares in YPF fell some 18% on Wall Street following the announcement.

YPF has come under sustained criticism from the Argentine government, which accuses it of failing to invest enough in local oil fields.

The Argentina authorities have accused YPF of not investing enough to increase its output and so lessen the need for imports, an accusation it rejects.

The company has been stripped of a number of leases, including in some of the biggest oil fields in the country.

In recent weeks, speculation has grown that the Argentine government was planning to force through a bigger state role in the firm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YPF is not the first big firm to be nationalised by President Cristina Fernandez and it is unlikely to be the last.

Ms Fernandez has continued the economic nationalism of her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, bringing such companies as the national airline under renewed state control.

Like Aerolineas Argentinas, YPF was privatised in the 1990s by former President Carlos Menem, a man who transformed the Peronist party into an engine of free-market reform.

But since Argentina's economic collapse of 2001-02, Peronism has gone back to its original corporatist vision, and many sectors of the economy that were liberalised in that era are now back in government hands.
Spain has previously warned Buenos Aires that a takeover of YPF could have consequences for Argentina's international image.

And on Monday Spain's ruling People's Party said the government would defend national interests

"The government has to decide on its response, but I don't have the slightest doubt that it will be the most appropriate response to defend national interests and Spanish interests and a sufficient and complete response to defend the interest of Spanish companies in Argentina," said the general secretary of the party, Maria Dolores Cospedal.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, has made it clear it backs Spain's position.

In November last year, YPF, which was privatised in 1993, announced a major find of 1bn barrels of shale oil.

Argentina has some of the world's largest reserves of shale oil and gas, hydrocarbons trapped deep underground.

It is ranked number three in the world in terms of recoverable resources, behind China and the US, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

She's a dead duck quacking.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae91248c-87e0-11e1-b1ea-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/markets_commodities/feed//product#axzz1sHrs1GUm

"Give 'em enough rope, and they'll hang themselves." well she is doing a great job of doing it,boy things a warming up.well worth a read as some big political statments in the artical such as.

"Spain last week warned Argentina that any meddling with YPF would be considered an attack against Spain, and would cause Buenos Aires to become an international pariah."



In Brussels, EU officials appealed for a negotiated solution. “A forced takeover by the Argentinian government would give a very negative signal to investors, national and international, and could seriously harm the business environment in Argentina,” said John Clancy, EU trade spokesman.

In domestic corporate news, Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF SA said the Argentinian government has initiated a process of parliamentary approval of a law for a change in control in YPF. With this, 51 percent of YPF's Class D shares owned by Repsol will be declared of public interest and subject to expropriation.

Christ !....it's Arnie at the checkin' on mars !....

I like all on here can only guess what is holding things up, but what I am almost 100% sure of is this.
If anything had gone wrong, IE either negotiations had stalled, or the CPR was delayed through lack of info, or the implied figures of oil found have been reduced/not increased, which would all have an effect if released on the sp, would all warrant a RNS.
Therefor as this would have serious repercussions on RKH via the FSA and the LSE, I view the lack of such RNS's a sign that things are progressing as we hope.
I know companies, especially those in the AIM can and often do, sail close to the wind as regards rules, I doubt RKH would do so.
The main reasons being that of all the companies quoted on AIM, Rockhopper must in the public, as well as the political eye, far more than most.
With the world watching (not an overstatement in my view) the Rockhopper team will be making double sure that all I's are dotted and T's are crossed.
Up to now, there have been no releases that we could call misleading (not like some FI explorers), so its down to trust, and that is from someone who has a reputation among his friends, as a very cynical person when it comes to trusting others.
I just hope I don't regret those views/beliefs.

Regards Greek.

Argentine move to seize YPF scuppers Sinopec deal


By Charlie Zhu and Jim Bai

HONG KONG/BEIJING | Wed Apr 18, 2012 1:56am EDT

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - Argentina's move to nationalize local oil company YPF, controlled by Spain's Repsol, has scuppered years of planning by China's Sinopec Group to buy the South American company, sources said.

Bankers said China's second-largest oil company had held talks with Repsol to buy its controlling 57-percent stake in YPF. Chinese website Caixin.com cited a source as saying Sinopec had reached a non-binding agreement to take over YPF for more than $15 billion.

But plans by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to seize control of YPF, which have incensed Spain and sparked international criticism, have killed any hopes that state-owned China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) could seal a deal, they said.

"It's too hairy for any Chinese major to put in that much money, unless there is a special relationship with the Argentinian government, which I doubt," said a mergers and acquisitions banker, who has advised Chinese state-run oil companies on overseas acquisitions.

"This is a challenging situation for anybody given the government action. To me it looks like political suicide to now allow a Chinese company to own YPF soon after announcing the nationalization. I don't they can go flipflop like that."

Bankers said Sinopec's interest in YPF went back at least five years.

The Caixin.com report said Sinopec was in talks with Repsol to buy YPF despite the nationalization threat and the Financial Times said Repsol had not informed Argentina of the discussions with the Chinese oil firm.

Sinopec declined to comment. "We don't comment on market rumors," Sinopec Group spokesman Huang Wensheng said late on Tuesday.

YPF has been under intense pressure from Fernandez's center-left government to boost production and its share price has plunged due to months of speculation about a state takeover.

Caixin.com's report said Sinopec believed YPF's oil blocks in Argentina hold large development potential and it was confident it could meet the Argentine government's requirements to accelerate development and production.

Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau declined to comment on the Sinopec interest in YPF but at a news conference on Tuesday said the company had received lots of international interest in YPF.[ID:nE8E8CP03D]

ARGENTINE RISKS

Banking sources said even if Repsol reached an agreement with a foreign company like Sinopec, the deal would not materialize because the Argentine government would block the transaction.

"Maybe it is an opportunity but it is a political minefield," a banking source familiar with Chinese oil companies' overseas strategy said.

Some Spanish media reports this week that CNOOC Ltd, China's largest offshore producer, was looking at buying YPF were dismissed because the company had struggled to expand in the country.

Sources familiar with CNOOC's acquisition strategy cited a decision in November by the firm's Bridas Energy Holdings unit to terminate a $7 billion deal to buy BP Plc's 60 percent stake in Argentina-based oil-and-gas group Pan American Energy LLC (PAE). Insiders said the deal collapsed because BP and CNOOC could not win Argentine regulatory approval.

hmmmmmmmmmm

So what news is driving this up?
Haven't seen anything but up she goes. pity I didn't buy more last week.
TT

Something surely must have leaked out re BOR, and I don' mean oil.

Have you been in hibernation TT ?....check out southern falkland sp's....

RF, been invested in rkh and des for a long time now.
There is no announcement etc and the markets are poor yet rkh rises.
Do you have any explanation for the rise over the last few days?

Go for it rf! But be polite! ;o)

Just a minute whilst...I stop laughing...having a job to type....be with you shortly...

Right...now...where were we....it's to do with BOR this morning and a possible farmin with a major oil company BG. or BP. or Cairn.....etc...

Thanks. Been on holiday away from the markets and not followed bor.

Time Traveller,

You should know by now that there are no excuses allowed on these threads for not keeping up, be it holidays, illness or death.

Regards Greek.

Blimey.....take the internet with you somehow......