The controversy surrounding clandestine hydrocarbon exploitation in the Malvinas North Basin entered a phase of direct judicial obstruction this afternoon. The head of the Federal Court of First Instance of Río Grande, Dr. Mariel E. Borruto , granted the precautionary measure requested in case file FCR 13706/2026 by the Malvinas Islands Ex-Combatants Center of La Plata (CECIM) and the Association of Environmental Lawyers and Professionals (AAdeAA) , ordering the immediate cessation and halting of all material actions related to the Sea Lion project.

The court ruling rests on an unprecedented doctrinal tripod: environment, territorial sovereignty, and precautionary prevention . By dismissing the notion that the litigation constitutes an abstract technical dispute, the court ruled that the Argentine continental shelf and the maritime areas surrounding the Malvina Islands are governed imperatively and exclusively by national legislation, enabling the intervention of local magistrates even against corporations based abroad (pursuant to Article 2603, section a, of the Civil and Commercial Code).

The order to halt the construction work

In the operative part of the ruling, the Court formally ordered the British company Rockhopper Exploration PLC and the Israeli company Navitas Petroleum Development and Production Limited to refrain, to the extent that it depends on them, from initiating or continuing any physical activity in the basin. The prohibition extends to:

A key technical aspect lies in the time limit of the precautionary measure. The judge did not definitively close the project by requiring an “Environmental Suitability Certificate” —which would have made the precautionary measure an irrevocable prohibition, since Rockhopper is already under a 20-year disqualification under Law 26,659—but rather made the suspension contingent upon the prior processing and substantiation of the environmental impact assessment procedure before the competent national environmental authority (articles 11 to 13 of Law 25,675) and the issuance of the corresponding decision.

The legal key: sovereignty as an “indivisible collective good”

Borruto's ruling takes on the value of a leading case , as it establishes the legitimacy of the CECIM La Plata (Center for Ex-Combatants of the Malvinas) on the defense of national sovereignty, integrating it into Articles 41 and 43 of the National Constitution. The judge emphasized that the case "is not limited to a technical-environmental dispute, since it is underpinned by the defense of national sovereignty, an indivisible collective good that constitutes the quintessential federal interest."

Along the same lines, the court incorporated the precedents of the Supreme Court ( Mendoza and Halabi ) and the Advisory Opinions OC-23/17 and OC-32/25 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , recognizing the marine environment as an autonomous right.

Under the application of the precautionary principle , the ruling formulates a categorical premise: the unlawful act does not depend on the biological damage already having been consummated, but on the fact that the companies intended to execute a large-scale project (23 wells and heavy infrastructure) without having initiated any project notice or environmental procedure before the Argentine authorities , as officially certified by the Undersecretariat of Environment of the Nation on February 24, 2026.

Ten days to open the corporate and financial books

Along with the order to halt the works, Judge Borruto ordered Rockhopper and Navitas to submit, within the peremptory period of ten (10) court days from their formal notification, an exhaustive technical, corporate and commercial detail as a sworn statement :

1.   The work schedule, well status, and main drilling contractors.

2.   The identification of support vessels, drilling units, and storage platforms.

3.   The overall corporate structure and the contracts that bind the various subsidiaries.

4.   The list of financial entities, banks and investment funds that finance the project, with details of disbursements made and pending.

5.   The contracted insurance and reinsurance companies.

6.   All existing environmental studies, oil spill simulation models, and contingency plans.

To safeguard the evidence, the court issued a complete document preservation order , prohibiting the oil companies from destroying, concealing, or falsifying accounting, technical, or insurance records. While the court temporarily postponed the general freeze on payments and bank transfers pending the identification of the financiers, it expressly left open the possibility of proceeding with seizures and specific financial measures.

Notification by The Hague and urgent communications to the State

The resolution ordered that urgent official communications be sent to the Environmental Impact Assessment Directorate , the Energy Secretariat, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , requesting that they submit within 10 days all relevant sanctioning records, disqualification files (such as resolutions 131/12, 476/13, and 240/22 ), and the current status of proceedings against Navitas and Rockhopper . These communications must be prepared in editable format by CECIM and AAdeAA within three days for review by Civil Secretariat No. 3.

Likewise, it was ordered that the defendant corporations abroad be notified by postal delivery under the protection of the 1965 Hague Convention on Service of Documents Abroad (Law 25.097) , with the involvement of the Directorate of International Legal Assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs .

The decision was formally notified to the Public Prosecutor's Office , the Tierra del Fuego State Prosecutor's Office , and the Municipality of Río Grande , which is acting as an interested party. At a time when Great Britain is publicizing investment guides and operators intend to drill by the end of the year, the Federal Court based in the Malvinas Province issued an order for effective compliance: the extractive plundering of Sea Lion lacks legal validity, and no well may be drilled without submitting to Argentine environmental sovereignty.