THE Argentine government has said it has taken legal actions against the British company Premier Oil. The company last week signed a billion dollar deal with Rockhopper Exploration, purchasing a 60 per cent interest in Rockhopper's interests in the North Falkland Basin.

Since then the Argentine Government has informed Premier it had taken legal action against Rockhopper's, "illegal" oil exploration activities on what it describes as the, "Argentine continental shelf."

A statement from the Argentine Foreign Minister said the government, "will initiate administrative, civil and penal action against it with regard to these activities."

A copy of the letter addressed to Premier Oil was delivered to the British Embassy in Buenos Aires. In the letter the Argentine Foreign Ministry indicated that similar actions had begun against Argos Resources Limited, Falkland Oil and Gas Limited, Borders & Southern Petroleum PLC and Desire Petroleum PLC, also involved in hydrocarbons activities in the South Atlantic.

The Foreign Ministry also pointed out to Premier that as with the other, "clandestine," companies, the illicit activities would be reported to the New York and London stock exchanges and requested the regulatory bodies  make a statment that those companies had been omitting information or providing erroneous data to markets.

A copy of the letter will also be distributed among members of Mercosur, Unasur, Celac and the Argentine courts.
Also this week Borders & Southern Petroleum announced disappointing results from its latest well, finding neither oil or gas. The statement pushed the companies shares down 71 per cent.

Borders & Southern chalked up an initial success in April, when it found gas condensate at its first well, however, analysts have now said investors should not give up on the southern area: "This is clearly a disappointing result, but one that we believe does not completely write-off the southern Falkland basin," Numis analyst Sanjeev Bahl said.

"The fact is that they have found hydrocarbons in both wells. In the worst case, it's going to be a very gassy basin, but if we're looking at multi-trillion cubic feet discoveries in terms of volumes, it's still very commercial."

Borders has said it expected the results of tests in August on the discovery it made at its Darwin well.