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The U.S. State De­part­ment’s Bu­reau of West­ern Hemi­sphere is­sued a stern state­ment on Sat­ur­day af­ter a Venezue­lan ves­sel had ap­proached Guyana’s as­sets with­in its ex­clu­sive eco­nom­ic zone (EEZ).

The state­ment con­demned the ac­tions, de­scrib­ing them as an un­ac­cept­able threat to Guyana’s in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised mar­itime ter­ri­to­ry.

“Venezue­lan naval ves­sels threat­en­ing Exxon­Mo­bil’s float­ing pro­duc­tion, stor­age, and of­fload­ing (FP­SO) unit is un­ac­cept­able and a clear vi­o­la­tion of Guyana’s in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-recog­nised mar­itime ter­ri­to­ry. Fur­ther provo­ca­tion will re­sult in con­se­quences for the Maduro regime. The Unit­ed States reaf­firms its sup­port for Guyana’s ter­ri­to­r­i­al in­tegri­ty and the 1899 ar­bi­tral award.”