Chavez: Queen of England the empires are over... give the Falklands backBusiness Business

Venezuelas President Hugo Chavez weighed in to the row over oil and gas scrutiny in the Falkland Islands" territorial waters yesterday, ancillary Argentinas explain that training proposed progressing this week by a British association is illegal.

Desire Petroleum, a youth scrutiny organisation listed on AIM, pronounced on Monday that it had proposed a training programme about 100km north of the islands. The move has drawn extreme critique from Buenos Aires, that claims supervision over the islands.

Christina Fernandez, the Argentine President, asked a limit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Mexico for await in the row that has escalated in new weeks given Desire voiced the plans.

"We await completely the Argentine supervision and the Argentine people in their complaints," Mr Chavez said. "That sea and that land belongs to Argentina and to Latin America." He additionally called without delay on the Queen to palm the domain over.

Argentina has claimed the South Atlantic islands given the 19th century, when Britain primary determined rule. In 1982 the dual countries fought a two-month fight over carry out of the Falklands after Argentina invaded the islands.

Desire is the primary of a series of supposed limit scrutiny groups that have been postulated licences to track for oil and gas in fields that a little analysts hold could compare the North Sea in size.

The training is high risk, however. Desire and the alternative companies that are about to begin operations have outlayed about $50m in transporting a supply to the islands, with analysts observant that the groups have usually a twenty per cent possibility of success.

"Geologically the area that Desire is training is similar to the North Sea, and if discoveries are made, the idea is that the margin could hold 200 million to 300 million barrels of oil, that is sizeable for these companies," pronounced Richard Rose, an oil and gas researcher at Oriel Securities. "But it is still really high risk. The likes of Shell undertook a programme in the same area about fourteen years ago and found usually traces of oil."

Desire is operative in an area north of the Falklands. Another company, Falkland Oil & Gas, is set to begin training to the easterly of the islands in Apr in an area that has not been explored in the past, but that primary geological surveys indicate could enclose as most as one billion barrels of oil.