The Ocean Guardian is in Falkland Islands waters
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UK oil firm Falkland Oil and Gas has said that it is ready to fund its share of costs for drilling in the Falkland Islands. The firm - which has exploration rights for the south and east of the islands - had $93.5m (£61.7m) in cash at the end of 2009, up from $18.8m in 2008. Argentina is strongly opposed to the drilling, claiming the islands as part of its sovereign territory. An oil platform arrived in the Falklands in February. The chairman of Falkland Oil and Gas, Richard Liddell, said: "2010 will be a momentous year. It will see the culmination of the work undertaken since the company was founded in 2004, with the commencement of exploration drilling in our licences." The rig - the Ocean Guardian, towed 8,000 miles from the Cromarty Firth in Scotland - has been contracted with another UK-listed firm, Desire Petroleum, to explore the area. "We expect to start this [oil] well in the first half of 2010," Falkland Oil and Gas said. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. It invaded them in 1982, before a UK taskforce seized back control in a short war that claimed the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British service personnel. Argentina has formally asked the United Nations to bring the UK into talks over the sovereignty of the Falklands.
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