The foreign ministers of Guyana and Venezuela have agreed to meet this week on the Venezuelan navy’s arrest of the research vessel for a US company exploring for oil offshore Essequibo.
Guyana has condemned the detention last Thursday of the Research Vessel Teknik Perdana, indirectly under contract to the US oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which it says was doing seismic work in this country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), calling it a serious threat to the peace of the sub-region. Venezuela, however, has lodged an official protest, seeking an explanation for the boat’s presence in its “Atlantic seaboard.”
As a result, on the directive of President Donald Ramotar, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett on