"The Falklands is potentially an oil rich area. When I was there we met many 'oil people' who basically told us that all of the science indicated that there was a ton of oil there, but they were having trouble finding it. Did they?"
Yes- oil has been found in quantities in both the N Falklands and S Falklands Basin - maybe 400-600 mm bbl recoverable at Sea Lion in the N
The issue has been getting someone to develop it. The field was found by a tiny UK company - Rockhopper Resources. Unfortunately Argie rhetoric made it a hot potato for the big international companies and the only partner avail was the mid sized UK Company, Premier Oil. They over extended themselves elsewhere in around 2012-13 and when the oil price fell had no money to spend. Eventually the main interest was sold to Navitas, an Israeli company (Rockhopper still have a percentage) about 18 months ago. They are pushing the project forward at last and, according to shareholder rumours, are actually in the FI this week talking to the Govt.
Expect a Field Development plan in '24 and first oil '26-'27
It will make the islanders SUPER rich - maybe, like Brunei, they'll rent their own set of Gurkhas etc etc