CGX extremely disappointed Says will return when feud settled Stabroek News July 21, 2000 An "extremely disappointed" CGX Energy Inc said yesterday that it will be demobilising its drilling equipment and support services in the Guyana-Suriname basin. In a press release, President and CEO, Kerry Sully, expressed the company's appreciation for the "extraordinary efforts to resolve the dispute made by President [Bharrat] Jagdeo and his non-partisan team, as well as by Prime Minister [PJ] Patterson of Jamaica and his associates." The Canadian company which was granted a licence in 1998 to explore for oil in Guyana's maritime jurisdiction, was evicted by Suriname gunboats on June 3. Since then efforts by the Guyana government to resolve the issue and have the rig return unhindered to its site have failed. The company after waiting for six weeks with the hope that the issue would be resolved, and drilling at an alternate site which produced no results, announced that it would leave. However, CGX has reiterated that it will vigorously protect its commercial rights and as soon as the dispute between Guyana and Suriname is settled it will return to its Eagle and Wishbone targets. Founding member of CGX, Kamal Deokie, said the company was examining other prospects, while it waited for the issue between Guyana and Suriname to be resolved. He told Stabroek News one of the countries being looked at was Trinidad and Tobago. CGX noted that over more than 40 years, exploration activities had been conducted by eight companies in the area of overlap under licences granted by Guyana. These explorations include a 2000 aeromagnetic survey carried out by Exxon, 1999 seismic programmes conducted by CGX and the Maxus/Repsol/AGIP/ENI consortium and drilling by Shell in 1974 to the west of the Eagle target under a Guyana licence. According to the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention to which both Guyana and Suriname are signatories, maritime boundary disputes should be resolved peacefully. In the event a resolution was not achieved through negotiation, the convention entitles either Guyana or Suriname to submit the dispute to an arbitration procedure established by the convention. Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today