“We will vigorously defend ourselves” – VP on Frontera legal threats

– hints at “ton of issues” to reveal to shareholders if legal action pursued

In the wake of recent threats of legal action over the Corentyne block by principals from Canadian company Frontera, the Government of Guyana has made it clear that any legal action brought against the state will be vigorously defended in court and will be backed up by evidence.
During a recent earnings call, Frontera Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Orlando Cabrales made it clear that Frontera and its partners were prepared to assert their “legal rights” if a mutually agreeable solution could not be reached.
During a press conference on Thursday, however, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo poured cold water on this threat, noting that in the event that the Joint Venture partners do pursue legal action, the Government of Guyana would not only defend itself, but also make some revelations of its own in court.
“If they take legal action, we will vigorously defend the legal action. And I think we should release all the documents, the letters we wrote to them, so that their shareholders would see what we sent to them. This is a publicly traded company,” Jagdeo said.
“And the shareholders have a right to see the correspondence from our side, to the executives of this company. We have a ton of other issues; we have issues of inflated costs etc., but I guess that would be best addressed, should we need to do so, through an affidavit if they pursue legal action.”

Dispute
Back in March, the Government of Guyana had officially cancelled the petroleum prospecting license for the Corentyne Block held by the joint venture partnership of CGX Energy Incorporated and Frontera Energy.
In a statement, the joint venture had disclosed that it received a letter from Government informing of the cancellation of the licence. However, the partnership had contested this decision, asserting that its licence remained valid and its petroleum agreement had not been legally terminated.
“We continue to invite the Government of Guyana to amicably resolve the issues affecting our investments in the Corentyne Block. Should an agreement not be reached, we are prepared to assert our legal rights,” the partnership declared.
Sources had indicated that this CGX/Frontera partnership has not been fully transparent with its shareholders in regard to its communications with the Guyana Government.
A senior Government official told this publication that, in selectively disclosing Government correspondence, the joint venture has potentially misrepresented interactions. The official has since urged this CGX/ Frontera partnership to release the full content of the letter, not only to stakeholders, but also to the media for scrutiny.
Government had, in February 2025, given the Canadian joint venturers 30 days’ notice that they would once and for all be evicted from the Corentyne Block. The administration and this CGX/Frontera partnership have been in disagreement over the status of the Corentyne Block, which the partnership had initially undertaken to develop.
While Government has said the partners no longer hold a licence for the block, due to a lack of development, the companies have asserted otherwise.
CGX Energy Inc, a Canadian-based oil and gas company, had in 2021/2022 said it had successfully drilled the Kawa-1 well in the eastern channel sand complex of the northern segment of the Corentyne block.
In 2023, the joint venture partners had successfully drilled the Wei-1 well, the second well in the Corentyne Block, as part of their appraisal programme for the Kawa-1 discovery, which ended on June 28, 2024. That drilling exercise had fulfilled the operators’ obligation under Phase Two of the Second Renewal Period of the original 10-year licence.
However, the company has since not progressed towards fully developing the potential of the block.
Back in June 2024, CGX and Frontera had announced that they had submitted a ‘Notice of Potential Commercial Interest’ for the Wei-1 discovery to the Guyana Government, which preserves their interests in the Petroleum Prospecting Licence for the Corentyne Block, offshore Guyana.
However, that move was seen by some as a last-ditch effort to avoid having to relinquish their acreage in the Block. In 2024, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had also pointed out that if the joint venture partners wanted to pursue a development offshore in Guyana, then they needed to detail that project and prove financing prospects.
Already, CGX has had to give up two other blocks offshore Guyana, along with parts of the Corentyne Block, after failing to develop them as per its agreement with the Guyana Government.