TALE AS OLD AS TIME

British Government Wanted Falkland Islands’ Oil Before and After War: Declassified Files

Ministers wanted to stake a claim to the region’s natural resources around the time of the 1982 war with Argentina.

Newly declassified British government documents show ministers wanted to cash in on oil in the Falkland Islands before and after the 1982 conflict with Argentina. The files show ministers believed revenue from any major oil find should go to the U.K. government and not the Falkland islanders. In 1991, then-Prime Minister John Major approved a policy paper arguing that the British government should receive “a substantial share” of revenue if oil was found in the Falklands. And in a 1975 document, one energy department official wrote: “Our ministers are very interested in the possibility of exploiting offshore oil around the Falkland Islands.” Britain fought and won a bloody 10-week war against Argentina in 1982 after Argentinian forces invaded and occupied the remote islands, which remain a British overseas territory to this day.