Borders & Southern Petroleum (LON: BOR), an AIM-listed explorer holding licences across the South Falkland Basin, saw its shares fall sharply on Friday after Argentina’s President Javier Milei threatened tougher sanctions on companies drilling for oil near the Falklands.
The stock traded at 10.5p in late morning trading, down 8.7% from Thursday’s close of 11.5p. It fell hardest among the Falklands-linked names caught up in the sell-off.
In a televised address on Thursday night, Milei said he would send Congress a bill toughening sanctions on companies operating near the Falklands, citing Donald Trump’s comments this week questioning the US’s traditionally neutral stance on sovereignty. He named Rockhopper Exploration (LON: RKH) and its partner Navitas Petroleum, operators of the 1.7bn-barrel Sea Lion oilfield, as primary targets, while also referencing other Falklands licence holders, a group that includes Borders & Southern. Rockhopper shares fell 6% and Navitas 2% on the news, Reuters reported.
Borders & Southern holds a 100% interest in three production licences and a discovery-area licence covering roughly 10,000 sq km of the South Falkland Basin, centred on its undeveloped Darwin discovery, estimated to hold 462 million recoverable barrels. Unlike Rockhopper and Navitas, it has no stake in Sea Lion, so Friday’s fall reflects a sector-wide reaction to the sanctions threat rather than company-specific news. Rockhopper and Navitas said in a joint statement that their licences remain valid and that the developments are “not expected to have a material effect” on Sea Lion’s development timetable.
UK ministers dismissed the threat’s significance. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said “the Islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the Islanders,” adding their right of self-determination is “grounded in international law.” Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said Milei’s comments reflected “domestic politics in Argentina.”
Milei’s proposal remains a bill submitted to Congress rather than enacted law, leaving its practical effect on Falklands-area oil licences, including those held by Borders & Southern, unresolved for now.