Oil At The Root Of Guyana-Venezuela Border Row

The 160,000-square-kilometer (62,000-square-mile) Essequibo region has been administered by English-speaking Guyana since an 1899 arbitration award in favor of the then-British colony (Credit: AFP)

The discovery of vast oil deposits is blamed for reigniting a decades-old territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana that fast worsened as Guyana started granting licenses to multinationals to exploit crude in waters claimed by both countries.

This is what we know about the showdown over the Essequibo region that has the world on edge.