Tomorrows Penguin 128 Aug 2025 20:20
Penguin News, August 29, 2025
The Editor’s thoughts
Lisa Watson
TELLINGS off from grumpy old chaps are a pretty regular oc-
currence in my emails but as a self professed (rapidly advancing)
grumpy old woman I admit to an increasing empathy. The latest
tetchily demanded why the media was ‘ignoring’ the subject of
oil. PN pointed the correspondent to our most recent article but
acknowledged it’s a subject we have in the past struggled to obtain
reaction to. Perhaps because, as he suggested, the sheer scale of the
subject is intimidating.
In order then to encourage thoughts on the recently published
‘Social Impact Assessment of the Sea Lion Northern Development
Phase 1 and 2 Project for the Falkland Islands’ I offer the following
views.
Regarding housing the report says Navitas will build its own
accommodation, a Sea Lion Hotel and staff housing so as not to
squeeze the local market. It’s reassuring on the surface, yet the
same document quietly admits that spin-off jobs, new arrivals and
longer-term population growth will add pressure to a rental market
already creaking. Anyone who has tried to rent a house in Stanley
knows the struggle.
Then there’s the question of power and water. Navitas assures us
it won’t overload local systems, but the assessment itself concedes
that freshwater is ‘high sensitivity; and that significant impacts are
possible during peak activity.
The hope is that FIG’s new power station will be ready in time.
Until then, it’s diesel back-up and a fair bit of crossed fingers. One
wonders whether ‘manageable’ in corporate-speak translates into
water restrictions and higher running costs for the rest of us?
And what about the trades? We’ve all watched wages rise in one
sector only to find ourselves short of electricians, plumbers, and
builders in another.
The SIA calculates thousands of “person-years” of employment,
which looks impressive in the graphs, but it doesn’t answer the
question of who will build the homes, repair the boilers or fix the
wiring for the rest of the community once oil is paying a premium.
In a place as small as this, labour isn’t an abstract resource it’s
your neighbour, your boyfriend, or the only contractor you can get
to return your call.
The population figures tucked into the assessment are worth
checking out (link at the bottom of the page). By 2028, the project
could bring in around 235 extra people. That doesn’t sound much to
the rest of the world but in reality, a six per cent bump in popula-
tion here is the equivalent of dropping a small town into someone
else’s suburb. Schools, clinics, waste management, roads all of
it feels the strain. The report suggests careful planning will keep
those impacts ‘moderate’. OK maybe, but moderate in Stanley
often feels anything but.
Continued - 2
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