Falkland Oil and Gas confirms Edison as farm out partner in Malvinas

Britain's Falkland Oil & Gas (FOGL) said Italian utility Edison was its new partner, bringing in a large, non-British company to help it look for oil in the Malvinas Islands, where exploration has caused Argentine outrage.

FOGL confirmed today it named Edison, which is owned by French group EDF, as the unnamed company which it said in March had bought an option to invest in its license areas off the coast of the remote Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

According to the international specialized media, via Edison International – a company in which it owns a controlling stake – EDF will pay FOGL’s back-costs in the region of US$50 million and it will pay its own share of the costs for the upcoming drill programme.

Edison will own a 12.5 per cent stake in FOGL’s southern licences, which hosts six prospects, and it will own 25 per cent of the northern area licences, where there are five prospects.

"We are delighted to have agreed favourable farm out terms with Edison. Edison is an experienced international exploration and production company, now owned by a major European energy company,” FOGL chief executive Tim Bushell said this morning.

Last march, the Argentine government announced that they had begun legal proceedings put together with the AFIP tax agency against five British oil companies, accusing them of "carrying out illegal operations" in the Malvinas Islands. Argentina claims sovereighty over the archipelago and has warned international oil companies exploration on the disputed territories is ilegal.