Rubio: An attack on Exxon or Guyana would be a 'bad day for Venezuela'

Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state during a Thursday visit to Guyana’s capital, said that it would be "a bad day" if Venezuela attacked its neighbor Guyana and the U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil.

Guyana and Venezuela have been locked in a longstanding dispute over which country holds the rights to the area of Esequibo, spanning 160,000 square kilometers (62,000 square miles), which is currently the subject of a case before the International Court of Justice.

Washington has offered military assistance to Venezuela, a tiny South American nation, amid the territorial dispute as well as increasing U.S. Sanctions on Venezuela.

In a post on social media posted early Thursday, the U.S. Embassy in Guyana announced that the U.S. Navy Cruiser Normandy was conducting exercises with the Guyana Defence Force Patrol Vessel Shahoud in international waters as well as the Guyana Exclusive Economic Zone.

Tensions arose early this month after Guyana claimed that a Venezuelan coast guard patrol had entered its waters, and approached a vessel operating in an offshore Exxon oil block.

Exxon Hess, China's CNOOC and Exxon control all of Guyana's oil and gas production, which is currently around 650,000 barrels a day.

Exxon has not been able to finish exploration in the northwest part of the block near Venezuela.

The Venezuelan communications ministry didn't immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.

Venezuela previously claimed that the vessel had not entered Guyanese territorial waters because the maritime zone delimitation was still in progress as part of the dispute over the territory. (Reporting and writing by Humeyra Pamuk in Georgetown, Julia Symmes Cobb & Marianna Pararaga and Leslie Adler; editing by Leslie Adler).

(source: Reuters)