Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has reacted with anger to the presence of a UK Royal Navy vessel offshore Guyana, ordering the country’s army and naval forces to be deployed to counteract the “threat.”

After a two-week lull in verbal hostilities between the two South American nations — triggered by Venezuela’s earlier belligerent stance on annexing a huge area of Guyana called Essequibo — tensions have risen again after UK patrol vessel HMS Trent arrived in Guyana’s waters where ExxonMobil has discovered and is developing billions of barrels of oil.