Since the controversial 1899 decision which set the border between Venezuela and Guyana, Caracas has repeatedly contested the ruling, claiming the 61,000 square miles west of the Essequibo river belongs to the Bolivarian Republic.

That controversy has heated up in recent years with authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reinvigorating the claim as a means of distracting Venezuela’s long-suffering people from the country’s economic collapse and near implosion into a failed state.

In a surprising development at the Norway brokered negotiations in Mexico between Maduro’s regime and Venezuela’s opposition, an agreement was established between both parties reviving the petrostate’s territorial claims against Guyana. This has alarmed Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs releasing a statement rejecting that agreement and going on to say that “Guyana cannot be used as an altar of sacrifice for settlement of Venezuela’s internal political differences.” Cynically, the renewed pressure being applied by Maduro with the support of Venezuela’s opposition, led by internationally recognized interim president Juan Guaido comes at a time when ExxonMobil has made significant oil discoveries in the contested region. Since 2015, the global energy supermajor has made 22 discoveries in the 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block offshore Guyana and estimates that it has at least 9 million barrels of recoverable oil resources. Part of the Stabroek Block, including a segment of the deep-water Liza oilfield, sits in the contested Essequibo territory, known in Venezuela as Guayana Esequiba…read more.