Guyana submits case in oil reserves dispute

Guyana has sent to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) its case for dismissing Venezuela's long-standing claim to the resource-rich eastern two-thirds of the English-speaking country, Guyana's foreign ministry said yesterday.

Venezuela's 117 year-old claim to the Essequibo province that Caracas calls Guayana Esequiba has prevented the countries from agreeing on their maritime border in a dispute that encompasses oil-rich deepwater acreage.

Under a license issued by Guyana, ExxonMobil started crude production in December 2019 on the deepwater Stabroek block that partially overlaps the disputed waters. This has led to skirmishes between the two countries.

The dispute flared in December 2020 when the Hague-based ICJ agreed to arbitrate Guyana's request for validation of its border with Venezuela.

But Caracas maintains the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the matter and wants Guyana to engage in bilateral talks instead — a proposal rejected by Guyana.

The boundary was established by international arbitration in 1905 when Guyana was a British colony.

"Guyana now looks to the court's judicial process and its settlement of the matter," the foreign ministry said. Venezuela has not commented on Guyana's submission of its case to the ICJ. It is not known when the ICJ will rule on Guyana's submission.

The dispute is one of the few issues around which Venezuela's fractious politics finds common ground, and consensus is no less evident in Guyana, where deeply divided political parties maintain that Essequibo belongs to Guyana and will not be ceded.

The sputtering dispute has caused confrontations off the coast. In 2013, Venezuela's navy briefly seized a research vessel working in the Roraima block under contract from US independent Anadarko that has since been acquired by US hydrocarbons explorer Occidental Petroleum

And in December 2018, ExxonMobil suspended seismic surveys on a part of its acreage license after a research vessel it contracted was approached by a Venezuelan navy ship.

ExxonMobil's current output from Stabroek is 120,000 b/d and it projects reaching over 800,00 b/d by 2026.

By Canute James