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GEORGETOWN, Guyana--Don't expect Guyana to stop its offshore oil exploration because Venezuela is claiming territorial waters where the "black gold" was recently discovered.
President David Granger has made it clear that his government will continue to back oil giant ExxonMobil in its work because the exploration is taking place in Guyana's exclusive economic zone.
He said he had met with officials from the company and assured them that they had nothing to fear as far as their operations in Guyana's waters were concerned.
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree on May 25, claiming sovereignty over Guyana's territorial waters in the Essequibo region of the Atlantic Ocean. Maps created by Venezuela's National Organisation for Rescue and Maritime Safety ONSA, after the decree, indicate that the claim would include a large part of the Stabroek Block, where ExxonMobil discovered oil a month ago.
Granger said the Caribbean Community Caricom has been notified of Guyana's situation and leaders would be formally briefed on the situation at the 36th Heads of Government Conference in Barbados next week.
In addition, all the countries of the Organization of America States (OAS) and Union of South American Nations UNASUR have been notified of Venezuela's claim.
Granger has described Venezuela's claim as a "legal absurdity" and the worst intrusion on Guyana's sovereignty.
"It is an affront to the nation and it collides with internal maritime law; it is completely in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," the president said.
On May 20, ExxonMobil, the world's largest refiner of petroleum products, disclosed that it found a deposit of a "significant" amount of oil in the Stabroek Block, about 120 nautical miles offshore Guyana. The company said the discovery was made in one of the two wells it dug, which realised more than 295 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone.
The total area allotted to ExxonMobil for exploration (the Liza Area or the Stabroek Block) covers 26,806 square kilometres. ~ Caribbean360 ~
