ExxonMobil plans to explore offshore oil in the disputed Essequibo region

Oil company ExxonMobil plans to explore for oil in two areas offshore the disputed region of the Essequibowhere six years ago several Venezuelan gunboats pursued exploration ships in concessions granted by Guyana.

The president of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledgeexplained that they plan to drill two wells west of the Liza and Payara areas at a cost of between 60 and 70 million dollars each, according to Guyanese media published this Wednesday.

These explorations would be added to two others that ExxonMobil has on the agenda this year in the wells in Trumpet Fish and redmothwhich are located more in the center of the Stabroek block.

Routledge recognized that the territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the region of the Essequibowhich the Venezuelan Government claims although Georgetown administers it as its own, has put “nervous” to many people.

Despite this, Routledge assured that ExxonMobil’s agreement with Guyana is legal and that both South American governments agreed not to threaten the use of force over said territory in a meeting at the end of last year.

“ExxonMobil takes comfort in knowing that our contract with Guyana is valid under local laws, and also under international law we have valid rights over the blocks in which we participate”, he indicated.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, unilaterally extended the country’s maritime border to the outer waters of the Guyanese areas of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice in 2015, after ExxonMobil had announced its first oil discovery in the coastal area of ​​Guyana.

Three years later, the Venezuelan Navy intercepted two seismic exploration vessels collecting information from American oil companies ExxonMobil and Anadarko Petroleum outside the Essequibo Region.