Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro points at a map of the border between Venezuela and Guyana, while at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela in 2015. (EPA/Miraflores Press)Rex Tillerson hadn't been CEO of ExxonMobil very long when the late president Hugo Chavez made foreign oil companies in Venezuela an offer they couldn't refuse. Tillerson told company shareholders the well, Liza-1, was the largest oil find anywhere in the world that year. As soon as the company announced its big find in 2015, Venezuela loudly reasserted its claim on the Essequibo. In March 2015, ExxonMobil hired a ship, the Deepwater Champion, to begin drilling exploratory wells, according to the company.

Source: Washington Post January 16, 2017 11:03 UTC