Oil
companies court Guyana ahead of UN body ruling
By Bharrat
Jagdeo
Trinidad Express
GEORGETOWN
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 04 07
Guyana-International oil companies have started
talks with the Guyanese government to begin exploration
of a potentially oil-and gas-rich basin off the
South American nation's coast, President Bharrat
Jagdeo said last week.
Spanish-Argentine
company Repsol YPF and Toronto, Canada-based CGX
Energy Inc have met with Jagdeo to discuss exploring
parts of the Guyana-Suriname Basin, an underwater
area which industry experts have estimated may hold
as much as 15 billion barrels of oil along with
huge deposits of natural gas.
Jagdeo
said he is eager to launch surveys after a ruling
is issued under the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea on a long-running border dispute between
Guyana and Suriname that once brought the nations
close to military conflict and has blocked fuel
exploration in the area.
"We
are hoping that as soon as we have a ruling on the
arbitration we may see exploratory activities in
the particular block bordering Suriname," the
Guyanese president said after a meeting with oil
company representatives.
The
UN maritime body has said it expects to give a ruling
on the decades-old border dispute between the two
South American neighbours around May.
Surinamese
leaders could not immediately be reached for comment.
Guyana
and Suriname have been locked in the dispute over
ownership of hundreds of square miles of untapped
territory off South America's northeast coast. The
disputed area is a triangle of water running from
the nations' land border at the coast out to the
limit of their territorial waters.
In
recent years, the two countries strengthened their
militaries after coming close to conflict in 2000,
when Suriname sent two gunboats to the region and
expelled CGX Energy, halting its oil exploration
there under a Guyanese license.
The
15-member Caribbean Community intervened, holding
five mediating sessions that failed to reach an
agreement.
Guyana
filed a claim for the area with the Hamburg, Germany-based
UN maritime body in 2004. Suriname filed a counterclaim
shortly afterward and a UN tribunal has been studying
the case ever since.
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday, February 28th 2007
Copyright
©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
