Has the Falkland Islands Government lost credibility and stature by investing heavily in extremely difficult to recover gas & oil as part of a “Fortress” economy heavily reliant upon fossil fuels?

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With £17 million of UK taxpayer funds invested in its defence annually, the distant dot of the Falkland Islands may soon become a maintained and protected anachronism; a 21st Century, fossil-fueled, fortress economy.

Since 2015 it’s been seeking to embrace oil and gas and to push economic ideas that are not just heavily at odds with the UK’s economic outlook, but also with the fashionable, much-vaunted World Economic Forum global ‘sustainability’ model.

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This late stage move to finite, dirty hydrocarbons keys in with the surveys made in the years before the Argentine invasion, and Thatcher’s written references to the strategic importance of the Falkland Islands:

‘Thatcher wrote in her autobiography that ‘the islands had obvious strategic importance’, and during the Falklands war she attempted to win US support by emphasising their strategic role to President Reagan.’

From Britain and the Dictatorships of Argentina and Chile, 1973-82

by Grace Livingstone

Here’s an excerpt [removed from the FIG website in December 2021, but retrieved using the Wayback Machine] from the FIG’s “Islands Plan” for the years ‘2014 to 2018 and beyond’:

“We present this Islands Plan at an exciting time for the Falkland Islands. We are on the cusp of potentially significant changes that a hydrocarbons industry may bring – but we must work hard to ensure that the desire for such an industry becomes a reality, and to ensure that the Islands are prepared to manage its implications – on our economy, on our society and on our environment.”

The mobilisation of a task force 40 years ago, followed by the loss of hundreds of young lives, can’t be seen as ‘justified’, given this screeching 2014 about-face by the FIG, with its lurch from natural farming to unnatural gas and oil.

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This tiny outpost’s frantic pursuit of difficult to exploit, unsustainable fossil fuels risks jeopardising the UK population’s support, which has been understandably wearing thin over the years. Thatcher’s supposed justification for the conflict is now looking very shaky.

The islanders’ aspirations seem to have shifted alarmingly. How can these newly announced wishes remain ‘paramount’ 40 years on? And how can British citizens – who continue to fund the islands’ defence – continue to invest their money and trust into propping up the FIG? 

Regardless of whether any oil or gas is ever brought to the surface, it’s envisaged the world’s diminishing oil supplies will run out in 40 to 50 years anyway, and oil and gas in the Falkland Islands could only ever succeed as a stopgap.

Can fishing and tourism alone – with exports mainly to Spain and imports mainly from the UK – sustain these islands in the long term? It seems unlikely. I’d describe the FIG’s economic competence as myopic if not fatally flawed. Even if the oil and gas ventures are successful, they won’t last, and there’s a very real possibility the FIG will end up going on bended knee to the mother country for another large bailout in 40 years’ time. Or perhaps a lot sooner.

Rockhopper Exploration’s Sealion Project still hasn’t brought any oil to market. It would surprise nobody if the whole hydrocarbons idea was mothballed.

In 2012 it was assumed that oil production would have taken off by 2018. We’re still waiting for this to happen ten years on.

A future UK government may even become short on patience, hungry for trade and arms dealing opportunities and return to negotiating behind everyone’s backs on sovereignty.

I hope this book provides some pause for thought.

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Part ONE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/27/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-one/

Part TWO: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/29/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-two/

Part THREE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/03/30/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-three/

Part FOUR: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/01/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-four/

Part FIVE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/04/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-five/

Part SIX: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/05/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-six/

Part SEVEN: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/08/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-seven/

Part EIGHT: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/12/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-eight/

Part NINE: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/19/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-nine/

Part TEN: https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/23/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-ten/

https://wirralinittogether.blog/2022/04/24/the-serialisation-of-return-to-bomb-alley-the-falklands-deception-part-eleven/