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UPDATE 2-Rockhopper gets partner interest in Falklands oil

* Experts say geopolitical issues will put off some* Shares in Rockhopper up 4.8 pctBy Sarah Young and Rosalba O’BrienLONDON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - British oil explorer Rockhopper said it had been approached by industry partners looking to co-invest with it in a major $2 billion project to turn the remote Falkland Islands into an oil producer.The company said on Wednesday that it expected the development of pipelines and a floating production system needed to get oil pumping from its Sea Lion discovery to be funded by a combination of partner financing and debt.Rockhopper declined to comment on the identity of the industry partners who it said had expressed “initial interest”.Given the long-running sovereignty dispute surrounding the Falklands - a British-governed territory claimed by Argentina - the company will likely find its pool of prospective co-investors limited, however.Oil companies with existing South American interests may prefer not to risk stirring up a hornets’ nest, leaving a select group of independent oil firms and national oil companies in the running to team up with Rockhopper.Almost 30 years ago, Argentina fought a 10-week war against Britain over the South Atlantic islands it calls Las Malvinas and the issue remains a raw nerve in the South American country, hit on from time to time by politicians seeking popular plaudits.The 1982 war is still remembered in a national holiday each April, commemorated with particular feeling in windswept Patagonia, the home of many of the conflict’s ex-combatants and one-time home of President Cristina Fernandez.Companies with a presence in Argentina would not risk the wrath of Fernandez’s government and the likely prospect of being cut off from other licences by partnering with a British company in the Falklands, experts say.”The only way you would see any company active in Argentina going near that (Rockhopper) would be if they received explicit instructions from the Fernandez government to do it,” Professor Mark Jones from Rice University said.Majors Royal Dutch Shell , Total , Exxon Mobil and Chevron all have a presence in Argentina along with Spanish-owned Repsol YPF, Brazil’s Petrobras and Italy’s ENI .Other Southern Cone countries have shown tentative support for Argentina’s claim in recent years, with Mercosur member Brazil formally criticising British military exercises in the islands in 2010.While experts don’t expect involvement in Brazil’s burgeoning oil sector to preclude companies from participating in the islands, some may think better of it.”Companies looking at the Falklands in the grand scheme of things might just think the size of the prize isn’t worth it given their wider interests,” said Ruaraidh Montgomery, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie.Rockhopper said on Wednesday that it planned to open up an online data room towards the end of 2011 to allow interested parties to learn more.The company also said that it will acquire a further stake in part of a nearby licence controlled by another UK explorer, Desire Petroleum , as it believes its oil field extends into that licence.Rockhopper will in return pay for a well to be drilled on the licence.It has raised 46.5 million pounds ($73 million) to help fund the cost of the well on the shared acreage and to complete appraisal drilling on the part of Sea Lion in its licence.On Tuesday, Rockhopper said its latest well had come up dry, but data from the drill led it to increase its overall resource estimate for Sea LionShares in Rockhopper were up 4.8 percent to 200.5 pence at 1103 GMT while Desire shares soared 23 percent to 21.25 pence, both outperforming the European index of oil and gas companies , which was 1.3 percent higher.