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Calgary-based Groundstar Resources is targeting the Takutu Basin where earlier explorations showed potential for resource-rich deposits, spokesman Dilorece South said late Friday.

The company is building an airstrip and ferrying in heavy equipment to start exploratory drilling in May, South said.

Groundstar Resources is teaming up with Canacol Energy Ltd. to pursue commercial oil production in the South American country. Late last year, Canacol paid Groundstar $3.45 million to buy an additional 35 percent stake in the prospecting license.

Canadian petroleum company CGX Energy Inc. also expects to drill for oil and natural gas deposits along Guyana's eastern coast in late 2010. The drilling would come after a nearly decade-long border dispute disrupted operations in the region.

Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF and Exxon Mobil Corp. of Irving, Texas, also have concessions in Guyana's oil-and-gas-rich basin, which experts estimate could contain up to 15 billion barrels of oil and 42 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.