On December 15, Guyana and Venezuela agreed to resolve the Essequibo dispute without the use of force. With that, the threat of a military conflict is over – at least for now.
- However, recently Venezuela launched a major military exercise near the contested, oil-rich Essequibo region.
- A British warship, the HMS Trent, also arrived in Guyana on 29th December afternoon amid rising tensions, for open sea defence exercises in its former colony Guyana.
Key points
- Esequibo is a part of Guyana, constituting two-thirds of the total land. However the densely-forested region has been claimed by Venezuela for the last two centuries.
- The territorial dispute took a dramatic turn on May 20, 2015, when US energy giant ExxonMobil announced that it had discovered crude oil deposits in the region.
- The offshore waters of Essequibo hold over 11.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels and 17 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.
- The discovery of oil & natural gas has helped change the Guyana economy, as they now constitute nearly half of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
- Reports suggest that Venezuela was eyeing the Esequibo region during the Falkland war between the UK and Argentina. However, the discovery of fossil fuels immediately triggered fears of a military confrontation in the region.
