MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Several companies trying to replicate Guyana's oil boom success in Suriname

Suriname is a former Dutch colony in the north of South America, with a long history of corruption and drug dealings, but oil could make a vast transformation.

Will Suriname become another oil boom province as neighboring Guyana? Wood Mackenzie hydrocarbons consultants believe it to be possible but exploration efforts have taken longer and the extraordinary Stabroek Block success and its dozen discoveries from the ex British colony has yet to be replicated.

Suriname is a former Dutch colony in the north of South America, with a long history of corruption and drug dealings, but oil could make a vast transformation.

Anyhow crude discoveries have opened access to some 2.4 billion barrels in reserves, and possibly some 12.5 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves.

The project closest to commercial production is a discovery made by Petronas with its partner Exxon in two Suriname blocks. According to Wood Mackenzie, production there could begin at a daily processing rate of 100,000 barrels.

There are also other discoveries in the country that were made by French TotalEnergies and Apache Corp that are moving towards sanctioning. TotalEnergies is expected to make the final investment decision on its project, in Block 58, by the end of this year, eyeing the start of production in 2028.

But a couple of years ago Petronas and Exxon specifically reported unsatisfactory results from a drilling project in Block 52, but this month the two struck oil in the same block, reviving hopes of an oil and gas boom in Suriname. The size of the discovery has yet to be determined but it would be the third one in the block.

In total, Petronas and Exxon have tapped some 400 million barrels in reserves. A total of nine offshore discoveries have been made in Suriname in the last six years but commercial development of any of them is still in the future.