Guyana reaffirms maritime sovereignty

…rejects Venezuela’s objection to lawful seismic survey
…says Caracas interfering with Guyana’s right to pursue economic development

The Guyanese Government has reaffirmed the country’s sovereignty over its maritime jurisdiction, telling neighbouring Venezuela that it has no legal rights to the waters off of Guyana’s coast.
This was after the Venezuelan Government on Thursday objected to a decision made by the Guyanese Government to advance a three-dimensional (3D) multi-client seismic exploration to gather data from a 25,000 square kilometre offshore area within Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
According to a statement from Caracas, Guyana is seeking to carry out unilateral exploration activities in part of the maritime areas that are pending delimitation – something that was outright rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in a statement on Thursday evening. It said such assertions are legally unfounded, inaccurate, and entirely inconsistent with established principles of international law.

Guyana rejects
“Guyana respectfully rejects the protest by Venezuela and likewise rejects the notion that any portion of its maritime space or continental shelf appertains to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,” declared the missive from Takuba Lodge in Georgetown.
The Foreign Ministry reminds the Venezuelan regime that the Guyanese Government has the authority to grant permission for any activities within the maritime areas appurtenant to the coastal territory of Guyana, as defined by the Arbitral Award of 1899, which established the frontier between the then British Guiana and Venezuela.
In such maritime areas, it said, Guyana enjoys sovereignty up to 12 nautical miles in the territorial sea and sovereign rights beyond 12 nautical miles in the Exclusive Economic Zone and the continental shelf.”
“The maritime areas in which the seismic survey will be conducted lie unequivocally within Guyana’s Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf, over which Guyana exercises sovereign rights. These rights include the exclusive authority to explore, exploit, conserve and manage natural resources within its maritime jurisdiction. As such, Guyana’s decision to facilitate the acquisition of high-resolution seismic data through a 3D multi-client seismic survey represents a legitimate and lawful exercise of its rights and is entirely consistent with international law and established state practice,” the missive detailed.

Seismic acquisition & exploration planning
It went onto state that the seismic acquisition initiative is part of Guyana’s national strategy to strengthen the scientific understanding of its offshore petroleum basin, enhance transparency in resource management, and improve the attractiveness of Guyana’s offshore acreage to responsible international investors.
The missive from Takuba Lodge further noted that the programme will employ advanced geophysical techniques to generate high-resolution subsurface imagery that supports exploration planning and strengthens the long-term governance of Guyana’s offshore energy sector.
“Accordingly, Guyana firmly rejects Venezuela’s attempt to characterise these lawful activities as occurring within ‘undelimited maritime areas.’” Such claims constitute a deliberate misrepresentation of both the geographic and legal realities governing Guyana’s maritime jurisdiction, the note said.
The Foreign Ministry pointed out that the Guyanese Government has consistently exercised peaceful administration and jurisdiction over its maritime spaces, including the licensing and regulation of offshore exploration activities. These actions, it said, are undertaken in strict conformity with international law and with due regard to the rights and entitlements of other states.
Moreover, the Ministry reminded us that when the boundary between the two neighbouring states was definitively settled more than a century ago by the 1899 Arbitral Award, Venezuela accepted and benefited from that settlement and the legal certainty it provided. That award, it stated, brought finality to the territorial boundary and enabled both states to exercise the full rights and advantages arising from their respective territories and maritime projections.

Incongruous
According to the Foreign Ministry, it is therefore particularly incongruous that Venezuela, having historically benefited from the stability and legal clarity afforded by that settlement, now seeks to challenge Guyana’s sovereign right to utilise and develop the resources contained within the territory and maritime areas that lawfully appertain to Guyana.
The Takuba Lodge missive went onto recall that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 governs the resolution of the controversy which has arisen because of Venezuela’s contention, first made in 1962, that the Arbitral Award of 1899 is null and void. That Agreement imposes no obligation on Guyana to refrain from economic development activities in any portion of its territory or in any appurtenant maritime areas, the Ministry noted.
“Venezuela’s assertion that it will not recognise concessions, licences or activities authorised by Guyana in its maritime domain is wholly without legal effect. Under international law, no State may arrogate to itself the authority to invalidate the lawful sovereign decisions of another State within its own territory or maritime zones. Venezuela’s statements therefore represent an unwarranted attempt to interfere with Guyana’s sovereign right to pursue its economic development and manage its natural resources for the benefit of its people,” the Foreign Ministry contended.

Inflammatory and misleading
Nevertheless, Guyana calls on the Venezuelan Government to refrain from issuing inflammatory and misleading statements that seek to undermine Guyana’s sovereign rights or discourage legitimate economic activity within Guyana’s maritime domain.
This latest act of aggression from Caracas comes as the border controversy case is pending before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Back in 2018, Guyana approached the court, seeking a final and binding settlement of the 1899 Arbitral Award.
The case is fixed for oral arguments on the merits in May, after which the World Court would deliberate on its decision.
In furtherance of its spurious claims to more than two-thirds of Guyana’s landmass – the entire Essequibo region and a portion of Guyana’s EEZ, where over 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) have been found and production as well as other exploration activities are currently being undertaken offshore – Venezuela has been deploying a series of aggressive tactics towards Guyana.
Just over a year ago on March 1, 2025, there was an incursion into Guyana’s waters by Venezuelan naval vessels which threatened several oil vessels operating there – something which was widely condemned by the international community, including the United States.
However, there was a belief that the January 3 capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas by United States troops to face criminal indictments in New York would have seen an ease in aggression from the Spanish-speaking neighbour. Following Maduro’s ousting, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has been acting president of Venezuela.