Venezuela accuses Guyana of issuing illegitimate oil concessions

Venezuela has accused neighboring Guyana of issuing illegal exploration licenses to oil companies in the Essequibo region, which is the subject of a dispute between the two countries.

According to Caracas, Georgetown issued “illegal oil concessions… in a maritime area that is indisputably Venezuelan.”

Late last week, Caracas made headlines when it ordered troops to the border with Guyana, which raised the alarm about the oil buildup. Venezuela has not denied, but has said it has the right to strengthen its borders in response to US military exercises in Guyana later this year and the presence of a British anti-narcotics vessel in Guyana's waters.

Previously, the Venezuelan government had criticized Exxon for depending on the US military for its security and for exploiting Guyana's oil resources.

Speaking of Exxon, the multinational may have contributed to Caracas' anger towards Guyana last week after it said it planned further oil and gas exploration in the Essequibo region . Guyana's foreign secretary, Robert Persaud, told the AP that Exxon has every right to explore that specific location off the country's coast because "it is in established Guyana waters in a fully demarcated area."

“We're not going anywhere,” said Exxon's head of operations in Guyana, Alistair Rudge.
Essequibo was part of Venezuela during its colonial period, but in the late 19th century an international arbitration awarded the territory to Guyana, then a British colony. Venezuela never accepted the arbitration decision, but for most of the time since it was made, it has not acted on its grievances. So officially the essequibo has been Guyanese for 130 years.

The dispute between Guyana and Venezuela escalated late last year when Nicolas Maduro called a non-binding referendum to decide whether Venezuela should annex the Essequibo region, off the coast of which Guyana has in recent years made huge oil discoveries. A rhetorical referendum. Furthermore, this year, in April, there are elections in Venezuela, and Maduro, who has already obtained a sanctioned truce from the USA with the concession of theoretical free elections, can thus also distract public opinion on foreign policy issues.

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The article Venezuela accuses Guyana of issuing illegitimate oil concessions comes from Economic Scenarios .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-venezuela-accusa-la-guyana-di-aver-rilasciato-concessioni-petrolifere-illegittime/ on Mon, 12 Feb 2024 14:54:46 +0000.