Caricom Heads of Government yesterday expressed their concern over the lack of progress in delimiting the maritime boundary between Guyana and Venezuela as agreed by their Foreign Ministers since last October.
In the communique issued following their July 1 to July 4 meeting in Antigua, Heads called upon the two sides to pursue the negotiations with greater expediency towards the conclusion of a maritime delimitation agreement. Guyana has been pressing for a meeting with Venezuela about this but Caracas is yet to agree to a date, citing excuses such as domestic unrest.
The raising of the matter at the level of Caricom Heads signals that Guyana has decided to ratchet up its effort to secure delimitation so oil search surveys and other activities can proceed.
Last month, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who was present at this week’s Caricom summit, told Stabroek News that more than enough time had elapsed for the start of bilateral talks over delimitation which had been sparked by Caracas’ detention of vessel in Guyana’s waters.
“We have sent several reminders… I know that enough time has passed for us to start and it’s time to push a little more for this,” she said, when asked for an update on the status of the talks.
Guyana and Venezuela representatives were set to meet since February to further discuss maritime delimitation after the exploring vessel, MV Teknik Perdana, was seized by Caracas and later released in October 2013.
The vessel was indirectly under contract with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation to explore the Roraima Block with a view to determining whether commercial quantities of hydrocarbon existed. As a result of the seizure the plans have been shelved.
Guyana has been adamant that the ship was intercepted in this country’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The 36-member multinational crew on the Malaysian-owned (Sapura-Kencana Petroleum) and the Panamanian registered oil survey vessel included scientists from the Texas-based researcher TDI-Brooks International.
The ship was intercepted by a Venezuelan naval vessel, the Yakuana, then ordered and escorted to the island of Margarita. Both Guyana and Venezuela have maintained that the incident occurred in their territorial waters and had demanded explanations from one another. Guyana demanded Venezuela’s explanation on why it seized a ship in Guyana’s waters, while Venezuela demanded an explanation from Guyana on why it gave permission for a ship to operate in its (Venezuela’s) waters.
Following the incident, a hastily arranged meeting between the foreign ministers of Guyana and Venezuela on October 17 resulted in a decision to have the countries’ technical experts meet in four months to discuss maritime delimitation
