Venezuela navy intercepts Exxon oil ship in Guyanese waters: Guyana

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS DECEMBER 23, 2018 / 7:33 AM / UPDATED 7 MINUTES AGO

Venezuela navy intercepts Exxon oil ship in Guyanese waters: Guyana

GEORGETOWN/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s navy on Saturday “intercepted” a ship exploring for oil on behalf of Exxon Mobil Corp in Guyanese waters, neighboring Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a statement, in the latest incident in a century-old border dispute.

A series of offshore oil discoveries in recent years have given Guyana the potential to become one of Latin America’s largest producers. In OPEC member Venezuela, by contrast, crude output has tumbled to its lowest levels in nearly 70 years amid an economic crisis.

The Ramform Tethys vessel, which belongs to Norwegian company Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and was conducting seismic survey work on behalf of Exxon, stopped exploration and turned east after being approached by the Venezuelan navy, PGS spokesman Bard Stenberg said in a statement.

“Guyana rejects this illegal, aggressive and hostile act,” Guyana’s foreign ministry said in a late Saturday statement, adding that the move “demonstrates the real threat to Guyana’s economic development by its western neighbor” and “violates the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country.”

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guyana-venezuela-oil/venezuela-navy-intercepts-exxon-oil-ship-in-guyanese-waters-guyana-idUSKCN1OM0BK

[gordianot]

1. Sounds like Venezuala wants a confrontation with the orange madman of North America.

.......only if there is a Trump financial interest at stake.

[GatoGordo]

2. You are right. Maduro CRAVES a military intervention

He is doing everything in his power to provoke his neighbors, the US and the EU. Any external military intervention gives him the out he desperately wants. That way, he can pound his fist on a podium in Havana saying, "SEE! My beloved socialist homeland was stolen from me by the vile Yanqui!" And his adoring Marxist sycophants would nod their heads like bobble-heads.

Trump is unrefined enough that he would fall right into Maduro's obvious ploy.

As far as Venezuela's navy... they only confront unarmed ships. And they only pick on the Guyanese (whose navy consists of 5 guys on a rusty pontoon), not the Colombians who would blow their ass out of the water. Venezuela loves to make the absurd claim that the Los Monjes islands, 20 miles off the coast of Colombia, is "on Venezuela's continental shelf" (!!!) and are thus Venezuelan; and that half of Guyana (and all of the coastal waters) belongs to Venezuela.