Whoever supplies an oil company operating in the Falklands can no longer operate here — and the rule dates from 2011

The law bans producing hydrocarbons on the Argentine Continental Shelf without Argentine authorisation, and the reach of that ban is what makes it different from a declaration of sovereignty: article 2 covers three kinds of conduct and only the first is extraction. The second is «holding a direct or indirect stake» in whoever does it «or who provides services for such developments»; the third is «contracting and/or carrying out hydrocarbon activities, transactions, commercial acts, economic, financial, logistical or technical operations, consultancy and/or advisory activities, whether for consideration or free of charge» with whoever does it. ⇒ the supplier, the consultant and the logistics provider are already inside the ban, and have been since 2011. The penalty in article 3 is disqualification for 5 to 20 years, after an administrative process, plus the reversion of any concessions held to the State; article 4 registers it and immediately voids tax and social-security exemptions. Article 5 bars the national State, the provinces and the municipalities from contracting with them. And articles 7 to 9, as redrafted by Law 26,915, add 5 to 10 years in prison for exploring and 10 to 15 for extracting, transporting or storing, with fines measured in barrels of WTI crude, and for the company, suspension of activities and of participation in State tenders for up to 10 years. verif · Apr 13, 2011 ↗

13 April 2011, the date of publication in the Official Gazette. The criminal regime in force is the one set by Law 26,915, since 9 December 2013. verif · Apr 13, 2011 ↗

Three kinds of company, and the third is the one that matters to us. First: whoever explores or extracts without Argentine authorisation. Second: whoever holds a stake in them, directly or indirectly. Third and widest: whoever sells to them, provides a service, finances them, handles their logistics or advises them — article 2(3) names logistical, technical, consultancy and advisory operations, and adds «whether for consideration or free of charge», so getting paid is not even required. On the map we have loaded, the chain exposed to that third class is marine and subsea services in the San Matías Gulf: marine engineering, heavy lift and piling, mooring installation, towage and offshore logistics, and vessel conversion. verif · Apr 13, 2011 ↗