A Venezuelan patrol vessel threatened oil production ships in Guyana’s exclusive economic zone, claiming that they were in Venezuelan waters.

News Source Guyana reported on this.

On March 1, 2025, a Venezuelan Coast Guard vessel was spotted in Guyana’s waters approaching various oil production vessels and informed them that they were operating in Venezuela’s exclusive economic zone.

“This morning, Saturday, March 1, 2025, at approximately 7:00 a.m., a Venezuelan armed patrol vessel entered Guyana’s waters. During this incursion, the Venezuelan vessel approached various facilities in our exclusive waters, including the FPSO Prosperity,” President Ifred Ali reported.

According to the Marinetraffic monitoring service, ExxonMobil’s Prosperity floating oil production unit was in Guyana’s exclusive economic zone at the time. It is about 190 km from the coastline of Guyana and more than 330 km from the territory of Venezuela.

According to the published video from the Venezuelan side, the incident involved a Guaiqueri patrol ship of the Avante 2200 Patrol type, armed with a 76 mm Oto Melara artillery unit and a 35 mm Oerlikon.

In response, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guyana summoned the Venezuelan ambassador and lodged an official protest against such actions.

In addition, the President of Guyana ordered the launch of enhanced monitoring of the area where the invasion took place. The Guyana Coast Guard is expected to deploy additional units there.

This is the second time in several weeks that Guyana has been forced to inform the international community about Venezuela-related incidents. Last week, six Guyanese soldiers who were patrolling the Cuyuni River in Guyana were shot and killed by persons on the Venezuelan side of the border. The attackers are suspected to be members of a criminal group operating in Venezuela.

Conflict in the region

Venezuela has renewed its claim to the 160,000-square-kilometer Essequibo region in recent years after discovering offshore oil and gas fields on its territory.

At the end of 2023, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signed a series of decrees annexing part of the neighboring country’s territory. However, an open war has not yet broken out.

After that, the Venezuelan government officially declared over half of Guyana’s territory its 24th state. Dictator Maduro also ordered the creation of divisions of the state-owned oil and gas company PDVSA and the metallurgical conglomerate CVG in the region.