Through an official communication, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland reported yesterday morning that "David Cairns has been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Argentine Republic, replacing Ms. Kirsty Hayes, who will take up another position in the Diplomatic Service," and that he "will take up" his new position "in September 2025."
Ready to consolidate its own companies' energy projects —in the oil sector in Vaca Muerta and the Southern Marine Basin , and in mining throughout northwestern Argentina— Great Britain is recalling Hayes and sending a specialist to Argentina, who is leaving the vice presidency of the Anglo-Norwegian company Equinor . He has held a position since 2019, after having served as ambassador to Sweden, Director of Trade and Investment in China, First Secretary of the WTO , among many other positions.
Equinor gained prominence in Argentina in 2018 , when Mauricio Macri's government launched, for the first time in the country's history, the bidding process for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the Argentine sea under the offshore modality; and allowed the oil company to participate in the international competition, knowing that years before one of its directors, Anne Drinkwater ; had advised the British settlers who usurped the Malvina Islands, for the start-up of a similar exploration and exploitation process, but with an illegal English license.
The concrete fact is that Great Britain is deliberately moving its pieces and anticipates sending to Argentina the vice president of Equinor , an Anglo-Norwegian oil and gas company that has a significant presence in the United Kingdom, operating in the North Sea and also involved in renewable energy projects, especially offshore wind, such as the Dogger Bank in the North Sea, including the British Continental Shelf; where it has merged with Shell to form the largest oil and gas company in the basin, producing more than 140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2025. It is investing in renewable energy in the United Kingdom, especially offshore wind energy, such as the Hywind Scotland wind farm (the world's first floating wind farm), the construction of the Dogger Bank ; and which has assets in Argentina in Vaca Muerta and in the Southern Marine Basin of Tierra del Fuego.
