A group of Malvinas War veterans and an environmental lawyers association have gone to court in Argentina to force Israeli oil company Navitas Petroleum and British firm Rockhopper Exploration to halt an oil drilling project near the Malvinas Islands, in the South Atlantic.

The filing asks the judiciary to issue an injunction to prevent potential “collective environmental damage,” arguing that the two companies plan to “illegally” exploit Argentine natural resources at the Sea Lion oil field without authorization from Argentine authorities. 

Argentina claims the area as its own as part of its ongoing sovereignty dispute with the United Kingdom over the Malvinas.

The filing was made Tuesday before the Tierra del Fuego provincial judiciary by the La Plata Malvinas War Veterans Center (CECIM, by its Spanish initials) and the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers.

On Wednesday, federal Judge Mariel Borruto, from Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, asked the federal prosecutor’s office to indicate whether she has jurisdiction to rule “in terms of the subject and territory” covered by the filing.

This means that, before potentially ordering a halt to the oil project, she will await the prosecutors’ approval to move forward with the case, since it involves activities by foreign companies, environmental issues and the sovereignty dispute.

She also asked the prosecutors for........

© Buenos Aires Herald