The new British empire? UK plans to annex south Atlantic (The Guardian)

[kpete]

The new British empire? UK plans to annex south Atlantic


Owen Bowcott
Saturday September 22, 2007
The Guardian


Britain is preparing territorial claims on tens of thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean floor around the Falklands, Ascension Island and Rockall in the hope of annexing potentially lucrative gas, mineral and oil fields, the Guardian has learned.

The UK claims, to be lodged at the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, exploit a novel legal approach that is transforming the international politics of underwater prospecting.

Britain is accelerating its process of submitting applications to the UN - which is fraught with diplomatic sensitivities, not least with Argentina - before an international deadline for registering interests.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2174615,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

[enid602]

1. Iraq

This must have been a back-up plan, just in case Iraq didn't turn out so well.

[amandabeech]

2. Anyone ready for another Faulklands?

The U.S. Navy could see action in another dust-up.

[malaise]

3. The imperialists are going mad n/t

[LeftishBrit]

4. Oh well...

Our recent governments haven't been too successful in trying to rule people. Maybe they'll do a better job with the fish and corals.

This should have come out on Talk Like a Pirate Day. It seems that the British Empire is now in Davy Jones' locker!

[IDemo]

5. Since when is 60 million barrels "immense"?

That's not quite 17 hours of oil at current global consumption rates (85 mbp/d). And that's assuming it can all be extracted.

[TahitiNut]

6. Well, at $80/bbl, that's $4.8 billion. Some folks might think that's enough to drop bombs.

:shrug:

[IDemo]

7. I think the article in the OP misunderestimated the reserve figure

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6571431.stm

The area where today's prospectors believe oil lies is vast - roughly equivalent to the central North Sea oil fields.

"We could be looking at 5 to 6 billion barrels of reachable oil, with a potential value of $50bn (£25bn)," says Desire Petroleum's Mr Phipps.