Lawyer Alejandro Terán Martínez asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order the suspension of the auction bidding process initiated by the Cooperative Republic of Guyana for oil fields located in Essequibo territory.
Terán Martínez filed a brief with the ICJ in which he explained that this international body declared last Holy Thursday that there were possibilities of revising the Geneva Agreement, which establishes the mechanisms to resolve Venezuela’s claim to a territory (El Esequibo) that belongs, according to documents.
In this regard, Terán Martínez said that, by virtue of this recent decision, the ICJ should order the suspension of any action that compromises the disputed territory.
“The public claim of the described areas is more than notorious, as well as the evident interest of the transnational ExxonMobil Corporation in the illegal energy development of said region since this Court has not yet ruled on the merits of the raised controversy”, says Terán Martínez in the document delivered to the ICJ.
“It would be illegal to proceed to receive and award operating licenses for an energy resource that is Venezuelan,” the lawyer said.
The tender called by Guyana to auction the oil wells in Essequibo territory, is scheduled to be held on April 14. Terán Martínez denounced that Guyana’s oil exploitation plans are advanced and proof of this is an 800-meter highway that the neighboring country is building as an extension of the Orinoco Oil Belt.
“ExxonMobil has called this project The New Dubai. It is estimated that there is an average of 169 billion barrels of oil in that area, of condensed crude, of high petroleum grade. Guyana cannot open that tender unless they are sure that the ICJ will agree with them”, he warned.
