Guyana to take maritime boundary dispute with Surinam

Guyana said it would take a maritime boundary dispute with Surinam over a potentially oil-rich offshore area to the United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.
President Bharrat Jagdeo made the announcement, citing what he said was Surinam's failure to accept other peaceful and "constructive" bilateral proposals by the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom).

Jagdeo said Guyana hopes to the tribunal would give an early provisional ruling in its favour, allowing the Canadian oil exploration company, CGX Energy, to return to the Atlantic Ocean waters off the north-eastern coast of South America.
"We will explore all these possibilities so that the people of Guyana can obtain relief from the freeze of offshore mineral development that the actions of the government of Suriname has occasioned," Jagdeo said.

Surinamese gunboats in 2000 raided CGX's oil exploration rig, claiming ownership of the waters, triggering a series of failed bilateral and Caricom proposals for joint exploration and exploitation of the area for the benefit of the two countries.