LONDON, Feb 22, 2010 (AFP) - A British oil rig was due to start drilling off the Falklands on Monday, a move likely to ratchet up tensions with Argentina which claims the disputed islands, the BBC reported, citing the oil company.
The platform has been towed to a point about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of the islands in the south Atlantic, the BBC said.
There are an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil in the Falklands but a spokesman for Desire Petroleum, which is carrying out the drilling, said the amount that would be of commericial use was probably far less.
Argentina and Britain went to war over the archipelago in 1982, with the loss of 649 Argentine lives and 255 British military personnel.
Buenos Aires, which has pushed for years to reopen negotiations on the islands' sovereignty, is furious that the British are about to begin drilling.
Argentina escalated the row last week by ordering all ships heading to the Falklands through its waters to first seek permission from Buenos Aires before appealing to other regional powers to follow suit.
Britain has tried to downplay the row, but Argentina won backing from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday, who urged Britain to give up the Falklands and said "the time for empires is over."
Argentina was hoping Monday to win more support from its regional allies at a meeting in Cancun.
Desire Petroleum insisted on Monday their interest was purely in oil and sought to distance themselves from the row between London and Buenos Aires.
"Desire is an oil company and it's exploring for oil and not getting involved in what Argentina is saying about going to the UN. The rig is sitting firmly inside (British) waters," spokesman David Willie told the BBC.
The oil rig, the Ocean Guardian, was towed from Scotland to the South Atlantic.
Argentina says Britain, a permanent UN Security Council member, is skirting UN resolutions calling for dialogue on the dispute. It says UN resolutions recognize the territorial dispute and urge dialogue to settle it.
Britain in January rejected Argentina's latest claim to the islands, which it has held and occupied since 1833.
The two countries' rival claims of ownership over the Falklands exploded into war in 1982 after Argentine military rulers seized the islands, only to be defeated and expelled by a British naval force.
The conflict lasted 74 days and cost the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel.
The Falkland Islands, known as Las Malvinas in the Spanish-speaking world, lie 450 kilometres (280 miles) off Argentina's southern coast.
Argentina says its territorial waters extend well beyond the archipelago, to the edge of the underwater continental shelf more than 2,000 kilometres away.
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