Canouan late night session on border row
From Sharief Khan at the 21st CARICOM summit in Canouan
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo emerged from an almost three-hour closed-door session at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit here last night to announce he will meet Suriname President, Jules Wijdenbosch from 22:00 hrs on the border row. Jamaica Prime Minister, Percival Patterson was mediaor of the talks between the two Presidents with each accompanied by two members of their delegations, President Jagdeo told reporters. He said he was pleased at the mechanism the leaders agreed on to "move forward" on the issue and they would have been working on a resolution to put to the summit today. He said it was "quite clear the border issue cannot be resolved at this meeting" and Guyana had requested a process to put it on a "fast track with some form of CARICOM monitoring the discussions on the border." The heads and the two countries have agreed the focus will be on the more immediate issue of the oil rig surrounding the dispute. President Jagdeo said he was not interested in dondemnation, but agreement that would allow the two countries to benefit from the resources in the area under dispute pending the outcome of the border issue. He said he was going into the new round of talks optimistic of a way forward and the two leaders and Patterson will be reporting back to the heads. The heads of government were due to address the issue at their closed door session yesterday morning but they began with the controversy still simmering over the Haiti elections in May. CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington late yesterday afternoon said the leaders began discussing the Guyana-Suriname border row which flared June 3 at about 17:00 hrs. The prolonged deliberations on Haiti in a room at the Carenage Bay Beach and Gold Resort cancelled a scheduled tree-planting ceremony by the regional leaders and a news briefing by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and Wijdenbosch. President Jagdeo said Tuesday Guyana hoped CARICOM could come up with a way forward to resolve the dispute that has soured relations with Suriname. "We have always stressed the need for a diplomatic solution (to) resolve this issue peacefully; for small countries like ours there's no other option," he said. He reiterated, however, that Guyana stands prepared to defend its territorial integrity. The border row between the two CARICOM members is centred on the Suriname eviction of the oil rig the Canadian CGX Energy Inc company has contracted to drill in the concession which Suriname is now claiming.
And as they awaited word on the outcome from the closed door meeting of heads, CGX President and Chief Executive Officer Kerry Sully and Director Denis Clement briefed the media corps on the need to get the rig back to the Eagle Site from where it was June 3 evicted by two Suriname gunboats. The two confirmed that the rig had to leave after the gunboats gave the captain and crew an ultimatum - leave "or face the consequences". Suriname has been trying to convey the impression to the media covering the summit that its navy did not use force to order out the rig, but Clement said the captain and the crew on the drill "felt threatened and they had to move". Guyana has accused Suriname of hostility and invading its territory, maintaining the rig was in its waters when the authorities in the former Dutch colony ordered the gunboats to move against the rig. Suriname has tried to counter that here saying a video and audio recording they wanted the heads of government to see show that the commander of the June 3 gunboats operation was polite in conversation with the captain of the rig ship. President Jagdeo, however, noted at a news conference yesterday "rocket science" was not required to determine that it is hostility when gunboats are dispatched to a location and tell people to "leave or we will eject you." "That's hostility, it is force", he declared. The CGX executives said that after the Suriname gunboats arrived at the Eagle Site and asked the rig to leave within 12 hours, the Houston, Texas headquarters of the owners of the drilling equipment advised them to move off location. The rig was towed to well within Guyana territory where it later began drilling at the secondary Horseshoe target in the concession CGX got from the Guyana Government in 1998. Clement said the gunboats were in the area up to the next day until the rig pulled up and left the Eagle target. Sully said here yesterday Suriname had raised no objections before the rig arrived in the area to begin drilling. "The first protest came to our knowledge the week the rig was in the area", he said. Clement said of the border dispute that forced out the rig, "We are not used to this, we were caught in the middle of this." He said the Canadian Government advised CGX to allow the two governments to negotiate. The two CGX top men travelled to Canouan "very specifically to communicate with everybody", Clement told journalists. Up to when they met the press yesterday morning, he said they had tried to meet the Suriname delegation but had "not been contacted". "We put the word out that we are available, we have not been contacted," he said, adding that the Surinamese government had not tried to meet CGX. Sully said the firm expects to know in about two weeks whether oil is in the Horseshoe target, believed to have a potential of more than 200 million barrels. He repeated the "really exciting possibilities" in the Guyana basin being explored, stressing that CGX wants to return to drill at Eagle, one of two possible world class giant oil fields in the zone with a potential of more than 800 million barrels. The basin is currently ranked 15th in the world in undiscovered oil, estimated at about 15 billion barrels. Sully said it is also ranked 2nd in the world for unexplored areas. "It's a very, very large reserve," he stressed. "The world is now starting to look at this area for future potential of oil…we believe a number of giants can be found in this area," he said. If oil is found in Eagle, output would be about 200,000 barrels a day with a projected US$2B a year for Guyana. The same benefits could be in store for Suriname if Eagle proves true because this would unlock the key to the virgin basin with a "string of pearls" offshore both countries. "It's to the benefit of both countries if the area is developed", he noted. Sully said CGX hoped the spirit of cooperation will exist between Guyana and Suriname to allow the oil exploration to accelerate. Clement repeated the firm's position that it would "be ideal if the rig returns to Eagle". They stressed that if the drilling set-up has to leave the zone, it would be at least two years before it or a similar rig would become available for exploration there again. The United States State Department, the Canadian and British governments and the European community are closely monitoring the developments, Clement said. He said CGX has the money to drill and if it hits oil, it will get the funds to develop into production. He said the firm has spent about US$12M to begin drilling offshore Guyana and noted that no other oil company has spent that amount to explore in the Guyana basin.  Follow the goings-on in Guyana
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