Argentine Government he protested again before the Israeli company Navitas Oil L.P for exploration tasks he carried out “illegally” in the Malvinas Islands. This claim was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considering the foreign company sanctioned in April 2022 with a 20 year disqualification to carry out hydrocarbon exploration activities in the territory of Argentina.

Both sanctions and new claims to Britain for oil exploration duties in the Malvinas region have occurred further political impact rather than effective, considering that Israeli companies show no signs of agreeing to the demands of the Alberto Fernández government. Meanwhile, the President confirmed our country’s claims in his 78th message. UN General Assembly. He expressed his willingness to initiate “a new bilateral agenda in the South Atlantic involving a formal dialogue process covering issues related to the resumption of sovereignty negotiations” with the UK.

Sanctions against Israeli companies are implemented by Secretary of State for Energy on April 18, 2022 based on resolution 240/2022, which was declared illegal activities carried out by the company Navitas Petroleum LP on the Argentine continental shelf. The government also declared the company’s operations “secret,” as it carried out activities “without permission from the competent Argentine authorities.”

Proceedings against Navitas Petroleum LP were initiated upon request Malvinas Secretariat, led by Guillermo Carmona, while the Ministry of Energy stepped in because it is the law enforcement authority that regulates hydrocarbon activities on Argentina’s continental shelf.

The disqualification is the culmination of a administrative process in January 2020 which included sending a desperate letter to the company, which in July 2022 was notified of the resolution through our embassy in Israel, clear in the last few hours the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by Minister Santiago Café.

The official statement stated, once again, that “the unilateral activities of exploration and exploitation of natural resources developed by England in the disputed territory contrary to the provisions of resolution 31/49 of the United Nations General Assembly, which calls on the parties to refrain from making decisions that require unilateral changes in that situation, while the Islands undergo the process recommended” by the UN General Assembly.

By not recognizing authorizations issued by the UK in territories over which Argentina claims sovereignty at the UN and other international forums, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded that Law 26659 establishes the conditions for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of our country. Among the demands is “the obligation to obtain permission before carrying out such activities” from Argentine authorities.

At the same time, the norms implemented by the Argentine government also apply sanctions for non-compliance “with disqualification from carrying out these activities for a period of time ranging from five to twenty years, among other punishments,” determined by the Argentine government.

The law also prohibits “having direct or indirect participation in legal entities, national or foreign, that develop hydrocarbon activities on the Argentine Continental Shelf without obtaining the relevant permits issued by the competent Argentine authorities, or that provide services for such development.” Therefore, this rule will cover companies that provide direct services to NAVITAS in its illegal activities on the Argentine Continental Shelf.

The Israeli company had received a letter from the Argentine government in 2020, containing a request to refrain from “financing or participating” in the above-mentioned activities in the Malvinas Basin. The warning was also sent to UK-based oil company Harbor Energy Plc, which after receiving the notice withdrew from the project.