Rystad Energy’s Managing Director for Latin America, Schreiner Parker believes Venezuela’s recent grandstanding will have no effect on confidence in Guyana’s bid round. The analyst is the latest to add his voice to the Bolivarian Republic’s aggressive posture to oil companies following the opening of bids for Guyana’s oil block auction.
Parker reminded that Venezuela is an “international pariah state” with their threat not seriously being considered as a “potential issue”. The Maduro-led administration vowed to “apply all necessary measures” against companies taking part in the bid which it deemed “illegitimate exploitation.”
“Venezuela is an international pariah state right now outside of the motley crew that they have been able to cobble together… I think that it is [just] noise…”, he said.
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Such threats are not new to oil companies and lend to Parker’s conclusion that they will not curtail Guyana’s planned development.
“These big drillers have worked in disputed zones before in the world and they have worked in joint development zones, they have worked in every type of imaginable situation that there is out there. So, I think it is particularly low on the totem pole when it comes to worry,” he explained.
The issue – a controversy, not dispute – concerns Venezuela’s claim to a large chunk of Guyana’s territory that contains its oil resources. Just days after Guyana announced the results of the bid round, a communique was issued by the Venezuelan government.
Guyana’s President, Dr. Irfaan Ali then asserted the country’s sovereign rights to conduct economic activities within its territory and expressed confidence in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to resolve the more than a decade-long battle.
This was met with a subsequent statement from the Venezuelan government with the threat within.
Thus far, Guyana’s Opposition, the United States (US) government, CARICOM and the Organisation of America States (OAS) have come out publicly, condemning Venezuela’s aggression.
