The decision by the Argentine Casa Rosada and Foreign Ministry to deepen sanctions against international corporations that support the British occupation of the Malvina Islands has finally opened up an industrial network that this publication has been unraveling for almost a decade . Among the names that have once again come under official scrutiny is a transnational giant that embodies state hypocrisy and the contradictions of the country's hydrocarbon policy: Noble Corporation plc .

This is not an unknown firm . The offshore drilling contractor—incorporated under the laws of England and Wales and headquartered in Houston—has a long criminal record in the federal courts of Tierra del Fuego. However, after benefiting from the dismissal of the criminal case during the administrations of Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández (with Rosana Bertone and Gustavo Melella as governors of Tierra del Fuego), Noble landed on the Argentine continental shelf, without the slightest objection from Governor Gustavo Melella 's administration, and drilled the three offshore wells of the Fénix gas megaproject for the consortium led by TotalEnergies, in conjunction with Panamerican Energy and Harbour Energy.

The 2015 file that politics tried to erase

Noble's presence in the South Atlantic didn't begin yesterday . In April 2015 , federal prosecutors Marcelo Rapoport , Adrián García Lois , and Carlos Gonella (Procelac) filed criminal charges with the Federal Court of Río Grande against the transnational corporations operating under British colonial licenses.

That pioneering list included Noble Energy Inc. and its subsidiary Noble Energy Malvina Limited , against whom Judge Lilian Herráez de Andino issued an international embargo in June 2015 for more than USD 156 million within Case No. 5183/15 , ordering the immediate cessation of their activities for violation of the Customs Code, the Hazardous Waste Law and Argentine sovereignty.

Despite that court order, the criminal case was frozen for eight years. Neither the Cambiemos government after the Foradori-Duncan Pact, nor the subsequent Frente de Todos administration, reactivated the asset freezes, which remain in place to this day at the Argentine Foreign Ministry.

The landing in Phoenix and the partnership with Harbour Energy

With the legal case languishing in the courts, Noble Corporation — after merging with Maersk Drilling and acquiring Pacific Drilling and Diamond Offshore — formally entered the Fuegian territory through the front door.

Between May 2024 and early 2025, the operator Total Austral brought the Noble Regina Allen jack-up rig from the North Sea, a giant structure that traveled more than 14,000 kilometers to drill the three horizontal wells of the Fénix field, 60 kilometers off the coast of Tierra del Fuego. The gas that now flows to the Río Cullen and Cañadón Alfa plants and represents 8% of national consumption was drilled by the same British corporation that was denounced in 2015.

The network reveals an indivisible intersection of interests:

1.     The British partner in Cullen: The Cuenca Marina Austral 1 (CMA-1) consortium that operates Fénix includes TotalEnergies (37.5%), Pan American Energy (25%) and the British company Harbour Energy (37.5%) , which acquired the assets of Wintershall Dea .

2.     Shared platforms: Another unit in Noble's fleet, the Noble Resilient , provided services in the North Sea for Harbour Energy and Wintershall Dea .

3.     Operational dependence: TotalEnergies accounted for more than 12% of Noble Corporation's global contract portfolio by the end of 2025.

The announcement made by Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno —anticipating new rounds of sanctions after the first 45 notifications to Noble shareholders and the operators of Sea Lion— places the Argentine State before a serious political decision.

If the national government and Gustavo Melella 's administration strictly enforce Decree 868/26 and Law 26,659 , they cannot simply celebrate that companies like Halliburton or SLB issue statements protecting Vaca Muerta. They must resolve the paradox that the largest drilling contractor currently sustaining gas production in the Fuegian Basin is the same company planning to lease its platforms to carry out oil plunder in the Malvina Islands.

Sovereignty does not tolerate selective filters when wells are drilled with the same drill.