Guyana to lobby UK insurance company to reduce risk analysis

Last Updated on Sunday, 24 December 2023, 22:07 by Writer

President Irfaan Ali addressing the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) annual awards dinner.

President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday announced that Guyana has requested the United Kingdom (UK) government to consider mounting a joint lobby to Lloyd’s of London insurance company to reduce its risk assessment of this country’s maritime space due to the border controversy with Venezuela.

“Together, we will have to speak to Lloyd’s so that they can understand the nuances, the reality that exists in Guyana and in relation to the controversy,” he said.

Dr Ali was critical of the assessment by Lloyd’s Market Association’s Joint War Committee that is confined to vessels visiting offshore installations in the Guyanese Exclusive Economic Zone outside the nation’s “territorial waters.”

“The Lloyd’s analysis is pandering to what people want: create instability and insecurity,” he said.

Bloomberg reported that with the placement of that area on its list of the riskiest shipping zones, there could be an increase in the cost of shipping crude from Exxon Mobil Corp.-run offshore installations. Any additional shipping costs are likely to be small at first. While the listing of an area means war-risk premiums can be charged, they generally only move higher when conflict breaks out, Bloomberg said.

Following Venezuela’s December 3 referendum that potentially has the effect of annexing Guyana’s Essequibo County and its Atlantic waters, that country’s President, Nicolás Maduro had announced that the state oil and mining companies would be authorised to explore for oil and gas and mine minerals in the 160,000-square-kilometre region, and that foreign companies licenced in concessions by Guyana had three months to leave.

Addressing the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) annual awards dinner, he said he had already spoken with the UK High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller about the need to approach the insurance company for an upward revision of its risk assessment. “Together, we will have to speak to Lloyd’s. “I think you can help us to reverse that decision in relation to Lloyd’s assessment of our waterways and increased cost of insurance it can bring to us,” he said.

The United Kingdom’s Minister for the Caribbean and the Americas, David Rutley, who visited Guyana this week, welcomed a peace pact between President Ali and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro. That December 14 accord styled, the Argyle for Dialogue and Peace, after its Vincentian location where the Ali-Maduro talks were held provides for, among other things, that Guyana and Venezuela, directly or indirectly, will not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances, including those consequential to any existing controversies between the two States.