The Essequibo lies on the north-east coast of South America. Ostensibly it forms part of the territory of Guyana though neighbouring Venezuela has disputed the border for over a century. Today, tensions have been reignited due to the discovery of massive oil fields in disputed offshore waters.
As FRFI has reported, the blood-stained hand of British colonialism is at the root of this conflict. In 1811 Venezuela declared independence from Spain and its recognised territory included the region west of the Essequibo River. Venezuela’s borders came under threat from neighbouring ‘British Guiana’ with the empire commissioning Robert Schomburgk to survey geographical boundaries. He identified the gold-rich Essequibo and Orinoco River basins as vantage points to advance inland, drawing the Schomburgk line claiming both for the British empire. A map was drawn up in London and a border declared. Venezuela invoked the Monroe Doctrine which pledged US intervention against interference by European colonialism in the Americas. However Venezuelan representatives were blocked from the resulting tribunal in 1899 and the US handed over 94% of the disputed territory to Britain, with the exception of the Orinoco Delta. Venezuela has rejected the ruling ever since.
Guyana won independence from Britain in 1966 and a framework was agreed with the UN for resolving the dispute. Whilst a solution was never reached, the treaty states that activities in the disputed territories ‘shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty’ prohibiting both nations from advancing the issue except through the UN Charter. Flouting this, Guyana has permitted ExxonMobil to drill in the offshore Stabroek bloc. In 2015 they discovered 11bn barrels of profitable light crude and today these oil fields produce over 500,000 barrels per day. ExxonMobil predict Stabroek will produce a quarter of its global oil output within five years. British oil companies have also got their fingers in the pie with Tullow announcing its first discovery in 2019 and Shell winning the rights to market Essequibo oil. Britain and the US have consistently intervened in Guyanese politics, vying for control over Guyana’s sugar, bauxite and now oil. In 1953 Britain sent warships and troops to overthrow a government headed by independence campaigner, Cheddi Jagan, sentencing him to prison. Nearly a decade later, the CIA, with Britain’s aid, rigged elections against Jagan, backing politicians more pliant to their interests. Six decades later, little has changed with the US intervening in the election crisis of 2020 amidst oil deals and charges of election fraud.
Big Oil in Guyana
When ExxonMobil struck oil in 2015, the Guyanese government unilaterally accepted a $200m deal to begin drilling. Since then ExxonMobil have bought off government and public opinion, sponsoring Caribbean Premier League cricket, the national cricket team and paying for televised sports coverage. Exxon also funds the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, green-washing their activities. In return ExxonMobil and their partners, Hess and the China National Offshore Oil Company, have bagged a ‘production sharing agreement’ with a two percent royalty and 100% exemption from income tax. Big oil will keep 87.5% of crude, leaving only 12.5% for Guyana’s own needs. This falls short of international norms (10% royalty, corporate income tax 25%), and even the imperialist IMF and World bank view the deal as unfavourable. Guyana has sold $750m of carbon credits to Hess, whilst a court case exposed its environmental protection agency’s failure to secure an industry standard guarantee from Exxon and its partners to cover all costs in the event of an oil spill, leaving Guyana liable. Crowned the world’s ‘fastest growing economy’ (38% GDP growth in 2023), little has ‘trickled down’ to Guyana’s poorest 48% who live on less than $5.5 dollars a day. Comparatively, ExxonMobil’s 2022 revenues reached $413.7bn, greater than the GDP of all but 34 countries. No wonder the US has designated Guyana as strategically important, stationing troops and ramping up military co-operation.
Oil extraction is accelerating, as Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s Vice President explained; ‘We support the vision of a fast-paced development of the resources offshore, particularly in the context of net zero…do as much exploration as possible now, prove the resources…have them removed and transferred into financial assets to transform the country.’ The climate consequences will disproportionately impact Guyana. It’s coastline, home to 90% of its population, is threatened to be underwater by 2030.
The British connection*
British company Swire Energy Services secured a contract in Guyana supplying offshore oil containers and equipment. The Swire family have donated over £70,000 to the Conservative party since 2003. Meanwhile Tullow oil founder Aidan Heavy donated more that £80,000 to the Conservative party between 2007-2015. Tullow announced its first offshore find in 2019; Tullow’s then chair was Dorothy Thompson, who also sat as a non-executive director of the Bank of England which continues to withhold £1.4bn of Venezuela’s gold claiming it does not recognise the elected government of Nicolas Maduro. In 2019 when opposition politician, Juan Guaido had sworn himself in as ‘interim president’ of Venezuela, launching a coup and nominating his own ‘ambassadors’; Vanessa Neumann was nominated as ‘interim ambassador’ to Britain and met with Foreign Office officials. She agreed that the Venezuelan opposition would ‘drop the topic’ of the Essequibo in return for political support from Britain.
Against this backdrop, Venezuela has reasserted its historical claim to the Essequibo, holding a referendum on 3 December. Half the electorate, 10m, turned out, 95% voting in favour of recovering the territory. The Venezuelan national assembly has discussed issuing identity cards for 125,000 mainly indigenous people living in Essequibo in order to provide emergency social programs and provocatively, authorised licences to state companies for oil exploration. Despite this stance, Venezuela has no jurisdiction in the Essequibo. Guyana is a US-ally and Caracas will not risk an invasion. Days later Maduro met with Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali in St Vincent and the Grenadines. They signed the ‘Argyle declaration’ pledging to ‘refrain, whether in word or deed, from escalating any conflict’ drawing on the mediation of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and President Lula da Silva of Brazil.
Torpedoing this agreement, Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged Britain would ‘ensure the territorial integrity of Guyana is upheld’, and deployed HMS Trent, armed with a cannon, machine guns, and a contingent of Royal Marines. Venezuelan foreign minister Yvan Gil responded ‘The former invading and enslaving empire, which illegally occupied the territory of Essequibo…insists on intervening in a territorial controversy that they themselves generated…This controversy will be resolved directly between the parties . . . We will stop the new filibustering that seeks to destabilise the region’.
British imperialism has no progressive role to play. Imperialism, hands off Essequibo!
Sam McGill
Declassified UK – Conservative party donors and the battle for offshore oil claimed by Venezuela. Molly Antigone December 2020
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 298 February/March 2024
