[ See also Pages GUYANA 2  and  ISABELANA on this web site ]

THE HAGUE/CARACAS, Dec 1 (Reuters)

Judges at the World Court on Friday ordered Venezuela to refrain from taking any action that would alter the situation on the ground in a potentially oil-rich territory that is the subject of a border dispute with Guyana, which controls the area.

The court did not expressly forbid Venezuela from going ahead with a referendum on Sunday over its rights to the region around the ESsequibo river, as Guyana has requested. But judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – as the World Court is formally known – ruled that any move to alter the status quo should be stopped.

“The court observes that the situation that currently prevails in the territory in dispute is that Guyana administers and exercises control over that area” presiding judge Joan Donoghue said.

“Venezuela must refrain from taking any action which would modify that situation” she added.

Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali hailed the court’s ruling, while Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez said it was a victory for her country.

“As the court has made clear, Venezuela is prohibited from annexing or trespassing upon Guyanese territory or taking any other actions – regardless of the outcome of its referendum on December 3 – that would alter the status quo in which Guyana administers and controls the Esequibo region” Ali said in a statement.

The five-question referendum will go ahead, Rodriguez said on state television, adding that Venezuela wants a negotiated solution to the dispute.

The vote “will ratify that our rights over the Guayana Esequiba are irrevocable and unquestionable” Rodriguez said.

The vote about the 160,000 square km (61,776 square mile) territory, which is largely thick jungle, has caused anxiety in Guyana, with the government urging citizens to keep calm.

Venezuela reactivated its claim on the area in recent years after the discovery of offshore oil and gas. The maritime border between the two countries is also in dispute.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has vociferously encouraged voters to approve the referendum, in what political analysts say is a test of government support before planned 2024 presidential elections.

Venezuela’s dispute with Guyana may have an impact on the elections, said security analyst Rocio San Miguel of the Citizen Watchdog on Security, Defense and the Armed Forces.

“If the elections represent a threat to Maduro’s power, he’ll suspend them through this route” she said, calling the dispute “a perfect distraction tactic.”

She said that while Venezuela has significantly more military power than Guyana, it would not be able to stand up to Guyana’s allies, which include the United States.

The referendum, which is “consultative” and can be approved by simple majority, asks Venezuelans, among other things, if they agree to incorporate the region and create a state called Guayana Esequiba.

Political analysts expect voters to approve the proposal, given the lack of any ‘no’ campaign and the likelihood that voters who are opposed will stay home.

Friday’s ruling is the latest development in the larger border dispute. The ICJ said in April it had jurisdiction over the case, but a final ruling could be years away.

Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Meijer; additional reporting by Kiana Wilburg in Georgetown and Vivian Sequera in Caracas; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Alex Richardson and Grant McCool

 

The Venezuelan president described the result as a great victory but critics have queried the turn-out

By Vanessa Buschschlüter
BBC News

Venezuelans who turned out to vote in a referendum on the status of a disputed oil-rich territory long controlled by Guyana have overwhelmingly backed Venezuela’s territorial claim.

More than 95% approved establishing a new Venezuelan state in the territory known as Essequibo, officials said.

Guyana, and British Guiana before it, have administered Essequibo for over a century.

The referendum has ratcheted up tensions between the two neighbours.

Critics of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, say he called the non-binding referendum to whip up nationalist fervour and distract from calls for free and fair elections to be held.

 

 

Venezuela votes on claim to Guyana-controlled oil region

President Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, had urged people to turn out en masse and vote “five times ‘yes'” to the five questions his government had posed on the status of Essequibo.

The 159,500-sq-km (61,600-square-mile) region makes up two thirds of the total of the land currently controlled by Guyana.

 

 

Exxon Mobil CEO says resolution of Guyana dispute likely a couple years away

Dec. 06, 2023 11:48 AM ET

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) Stock,   HES Stock,    CVX Stock

By: Joshua Fineman, SA News Editor16 Comments
Exxon Posts 38 Percent Decline In Quarterly Profit
Spencer Platt/Getty Images News

Exxon Mobil  (NYSE:XOM)  CEO Darren Woods said that the dispute between Venezuela and Guyana over Guyana’s Essequibo region ” likely won’t be resolved for a couple years.”

“Our expectation is that process will continue and that both nations will respect that process and respect the outcome of the arbitration,” Woods said on Exxon’s business update call on Wednesday. “I think if you look around the world, certainly in the US and Europe and other Caribbean countries, all very supportive of the process that those two nations have been going through to resolve that dispute my expectation is that we’ll continue to work its way through that justice system and we’ll get will get result there that I expect and certainly hope that both countries will respect the outcome of that arbitration, but that’s a couple of years, probably into the future.”

Woods comments come as Hess (NYSE:HES) ticked down 0.7% Wednesday to its lowest in nearly five months after Guyana said it is intensifying security measures and engaging the U.S. military to help it protect the Essequibo region, as Venezuela’s actions are seen as a threat to its territorial integrity.

Venezuela’s President Maduro ordered state-owned energy and mineral companies to begin granting exploration licenses for deposits in the oil-rich region, and claimed he ordered foreign oil companies working in Essequibo to withdraw, although he has not sent any military forces to carry out his demands.

Hess (HES) is part of the Exxon-led (XOM) consortium that began producing oil off Guyana’s coast in 2019; earlier this year, Guyana took bids for new shallow-water and deep-water blocks from local and foreign companies in its first international bidding round.

Some investors are concerned that the Guyana dispute may be problematic for Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) planned $53 billion purchase of Hess (HES). The Hess/Chevron gross deal spread widened to $8.92 on Wednesday from $8.04 on Tuesday.

 

 

TRINIDAD

PM witnesses sign-off on new Atlantic LNG structure

RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS 12 HRS AGO

THE AGREEMENT for a new unitised commercial structure of Atlantic LNG (ALNG) was officially signed on Tuesday, an announcement by the Office of the Prime Minister said on Tuesday.

The statement said the Prime Minister witnessed the signing at a commemorative ceremony in London on Tuesday.

The agreement, the statement said, will allow the National Gas Company of TT Ltd (NGC) to get a bigger piece of the pie from revenue garnered from ALNG’s sale of natural gas on the global market.

In the new arrangement, NGC will receive a ten per cent shareholding across all four ALNG trains, whereas the previous structure saw the company getting ten per cent of train one and 11 per cent of train four, with no share of trains two and three.

At Tuesday’s ceremony, Dr Rowley hailed the agreement as a win for the people of TT.

“We in Trinidad and Tobago, representing the people of TT, feel confident that success will come our way, and that success will be shared more fairly with greater clarity and with greater sustainability.”

At a press conference in London, Rowley thanked stakeholders for their understanding, saying conversations could have been more difficult without the help of the companies involved. He said their listening to the TT Government showed that they “had a heart…”

“At every step of the way, the people involved could have said, ‘The contract doesn’t have allowed for that and we don’t want to listen to that conversation.

“They could have said, ‘We are not in breach of contract so, therefore, there is nothing to discuss.’

“But TT, represented by myself the energy minister, the permanent secretary and others, I think we made the case to you all.

“Many of you understood what we were saying in that we don’t just want to be a tax-collecting office, we want to be a partner and shareholder in this business, particularly given what is happening in the world industry. We have to be a partner, and we have to be involved.”