In an increasingly polarized world rife with political and religious conflicts, illustrations of tolerance and acceptance are rare but welcome sights.
One such illustration is Keizer Street in Paramaribo, where the Neveh Shalom Synagogue and Keizerstraat mosque sit side by side. The facilities share a parking lot, and parishioners support each other’s activities.
Expressions of diversity are common in Suriname, a population of 600,000 located on the Guiana Shield, a 1.7-billion-year-old geological formation encompassing 270 million hectares in northern South America.
Neighbors include Guyana to the west and French Guiana to the east, the Caribbean Sea to the north and Brazil to the south.
Ruled by the Netherlands until its independence in 1975, Suriname’s official language is Dutch, though most residents speak three or four languages, including English.
Patrick Brunings, exploration and non-operated ventures asset manager at Staatsolie Maatschappij (Suriname’s national oil company), said his country can be branded in many ways.
“Suriname is an explosion of different well-kept and accessible cultures which can be seen, smelled and tasted,” he said, adding that it is known for its rich cultural diversity with descendants from different parts of the world.
Waves of immigration from Africa, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, China and Brazil created a tapestry of people groups who preserve and share their traditions.
“We have many cultural festivals which are celebrated together,” Brunings said. “The mix is also reflected in the many languages, culinary dishes, clothing and traditions.”
He noted that visitors to Suriname appreciate the country’s cultural and natural beauty.
“The capital Paramaribo has a beautiful wooden inner city with a unique building style,” he said.
“If one wants to escape the busy city, the interior is a world apart with Suriname being the greenest country in the world with a forest coverage of 93 percent! The tropical jungle harbors many flora and fauna species – a paradise for bird-watchers and eco-tourists who want something different,” he said.
A Diverse Economy
Suriname’s abundant natural resources drive the country’s economy, with mining accounting for nearly half of public-sector revenue and gold representing more than three quarters of total exports.
Other key industries include agriculture, fishery, tourism and trade.
Shell discovered oil onshore in the 1960s, but that find and other minor onshore and offshore discoveries were considered non-commercial.
An accidental discovery in 1965 renewed interest in the country’s hydrocarbon potential. Teams drilling for water on a school yard in the Saramacca District in northern Suriname struck oil at a depth of 160 meters.
The global oil crisis of the 1970s peaked multinational corporations’ interest in the country, but the Surinamese government chose to retain control of the sector’s development.
In May 1980, the Surinamese government appointed the Oil Commission, chaired by geologist Eduardo “Eddie” Jharap. In December of that year, the government established Staatsolie with a mandate to execute the national oil policy. The policy stipulated that only foreign oil companies may explore and produce oil only through service contracts with Staatsolie.
As the first Staatsolie CEO, Jharap proceeded to develop oil discoveries in Saramacca, allowing Staatsolie to produce oil independently while acting as an agent of the state.
Brunings noted that today, Staatsolie continues to fulfill its mission of to execute Suriname’s oil policy, including exploration, drilling and processing oil.
“The objective is to maximize the value from petroleum resource development for Suriname, through prudent resource management, with utmost respect for the environment, and with highest regard for safety,” he said.
Looking to the Offshore
Though onshore production provided revenue for Staatsolie and Suriname in the latter part of the 20th century, the potential for offshore oil and gas remained untapped.
The situation changed soon afterward. In 2001 the U.S. Geological Survey identified the Guyana-Suriname Basin as one of the last remaining poorly explored but highly prospective basins in the world.
A decade later, ExxonMobil began operating in Guyana, Suriname’s neighbor to the west. Since 2015, operators have made 46 oil and gas discoveries in the country, netting more than 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas.
Brunings described how global interest in Guyana benefits the entire region.
“The impact has been very positive both of bringing the attention to the basin, which is shared by both countries, but also in terms of the development success of Guyana heightening the expectations that this success will also be repeated in Suriname,” he said.
Offshore discoveries in Suriname started in 2020, when Apache and TotalEnergies made three consecutive offshore oil discoveries in Block 58. Petronas and ExxonMobil made a discovery in Block 52 the same year.
Understanding the Basin
While independent operators take their chances offshore, Staatsolie geoscientists have spent the past several years studying hydrocarbon potential in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.
Eshita Narain, basin studies and open acreage evaluations lead at Staatsolie, said basin studies initiated in 2021 brought significant improvements to understanding of the basin’s petroleum system elements.
The Staatsolie team, in partnership with consultant subject matter experts, identified the hydrocarbon potential using the Staatsolie Basin Studies Workflow, an integrated approach of exploration methods that incorporate key data sets to build a petroleum systems model.
The team used all relevant basin-wide available gravity and magnetic data, well logs and seismic data onshore to offshore, biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy data, depositional maps, geochemical analyses, source rock data and analogs to develop the model and calculate volumes. The very large dataset contained both confidential and open data.
Narain said Staatsolie’s basin wide analysis identified four dominate system tracts: a transgressive carbonate dominated margin from Upper Jurassic to Aptian followed by a regressive clastics-dominated margin from the Albian up to the Maastrichtian; then again, a transgressive carbonate dominated margin from Paleocene to Eocene, followed by a regressive clastics-dominated margin from Oligocene to Miocene. She added that the systems also are reflected back in the gross depositional maps.
“Wells drilled in the basin have encountered reservoirs at several stratigraphic levels, varying in mineralogy and petrology which resulted in reservoir quality differences,” she said. “There are for sure good quality reservoirs encountered in many wells, however these vary in reservoir type and quality based on the play level, the geological province and depth. These could be clastics or carbonates based on the play level and province.”
Narain said there are at least two main oil families recognized regionally.
“Recent petroleum systems modelling indicated a significant number of hydrocarbons expelled in the Basin: a grand total of 1.2 trillion barrels of oil-equivalent basin-wide cumulative from the Proven Albian-Cenomanian-Turonian-Coniacian and potential Aptian-Albian Jurassic source rocks,” she said, adding that the team continuously works to improve the basin model by adding newly acquired data and using tools and methods to reduce uncertainty as much as possible.
Making Exploration Successful
Brunings noted that identifying promising reservoirs is just the first step. Partnerships with outside operators are key to developing successful exploration and development projects, and attracting potential partners is an important part of his job.
“The country entrée for conducting exploration activities needs to stay attractive … to entice petroleum activities. Once exploration projects are running, the role of Suriname is to support the project directly and indirectly in terms of sharing knowledge of the basin without jeopardizing confidentiality,” he said.
“Bringing parties together and supporting companies as strategic partners in the project are the main keys to making these projects successful. This strategy has been used in the last three years and has paid off,” he added.
“We currently are running our third bid round in three years, which is one of the most aggressive campaigns that the industry has seen worldwide. We are also offering data acquisition vendors to invest in running various data gathering surveys which are linked to the previous mentioned bid rounds so that investment return risks are minimized.”
Shallow Offshore 2 Bid Round
The current campaign, Shallow Offshore 2 (SHO2) 2023-24, is a competitive bidding round for 11 new blocks located in the nearshore and shallow offshore to south and east of recent deepwater discoveries and north of onshore producing fields.
Management presentations and virtual data rooms opened in December and will close on April 26. Bids are due by May 31 with awards to be announced in late June this year.
Narain said the bid round provides multiple opportunities for interested companies.
“The updated lead and prospect inventory demonstrates the enormous prospectivity of the margin preserved within multiple play types across the acreage on offer,” she said.
SHO 2 features 37,400 square kilometers of acreage, subdivided into 11 blocks offering the following play types: extension of the Campanian turbidite play; Aptian/Albian Shelf Margin Onlap/Pinch-out plays; Albian/C-T fault related basement margin plays (onlaps and truncations); Jurassic/Albian/Aptian Structural plays (fault related traps); and Turonian/Campanian to Maastrichtian/Eocene Margin Onlap/Pinch-out/Wedge plays.
Brunings said he is pleased that several “serious companies” have registered for SHO2.
“As with previous bid rounds, we expect some more companies throughout the month. Looking at the inquiries at the bid round management sessions, the intensity of the data room visits, and the purchase of data related to the bid round areas, we are also expecting a good turnout of bids that will be officially submitted,” he said.
Brunings noted that, even while SHO2 is under way, Staatsolie is preparing for future offerings.
“Plans are already in the making for the next bid round as studies using new data have already started,” he said. “The exact timing and areas have not been worked out yet, but we plan to announce specifics in early 2025.”
Healthy Business Environment
Brunings encouraged companies looking for new opportunities to consider Suriname.
“Suriname is a stable country that honors contracts. The economy is quite diverse but stable and Suriname is regarded as one of the rising foreign direct investment stars. Both the illiteracy and the crime rates are low,” he said.
Staatsolie is not the only company highlighting Suriname’s potential.
Multi-energy company TotalEnergies entered Suriname in 2019, and since then has made five discoveries in offshore Block 58. The company started exploring Blocks 6 and 8 in 2023.
In September 2023, Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies met with Chandrikapersad Santokhi, president of the Republic of Suriname, and Annand Jagesar, CEO of Staatsolie to announce development studies for a large oil project in Block 58.
TotalEnergies is the operator of Block 58, with a 50-percent interest; APA Corporation holds the other 50-percent interest.
“The Block 58 development studies that we are launching today are a major step towards the development of the petroleum resources of Suriname. This development is in line with TotalEnergies’ strategy aiming at the development of low-cost, low-emissions oil resources and leverages on our company’s expertise in deepwater projects. We will thus contribute to improving the well-being of the people of Suriname,” Pouyanné said.
TotalEnergies completed appraisal of the Sapakara South and Krabdagu oil discoveries in August 2023, with the drilling and testing of three wells, and confirmed combined recoverable resources close to 700 million barrels for the two fields.
These reserves, located in water depths between 100 and 1,000 meters, will be produced through a system of subsea wells connected to a floating production, storage and offloading unit located 150 kilometers off the Suriname coast, with an oil production capacity of 200,000 barrels per day. The project represents an investment of approximately $9 billion, according to TotalEnergies.
TotalEnergies company projects a final investment decision by the end of 2024 with a first production target in 2028.
Benefits for the Surinamese People
Brunings said TotalEnergies’ commitment represents a vote of confidence for the country.
“This will create an even better economic environment for the country and for other companies that want to invest in Suriname, especially in the energy sector,” he said.
Brunings said he looks forward to seeing how offshore discoveries will provide a positive impact on the Surinamese people.
“Once discoveries materialize into developments, the financial revenues can be used to strengthen governmental institutions and health care systems and to invest in education, modern agriculture, new renewable energies,” he said.
More 50 percent of the Suriname’s energy comes from hydroelectric power, and potential exists to generate additional energy from the country’s water, wind and sun.
Brunings believes that developing the country’s offshore sector will help benefit other areas as well.
“An offshore development will also generate the need for high quality services which will trigger a further increase in skills and competencies of the local workforce. Steady income will also reduce the country’s risk, thus creating an even more favorable investment climate.”
Brunings said one of the best parts of working in Suriname is the opportunity to embrace its most valuable resource, its people.
“Surinamese people are some of the most welcoming in the world. If you enjoy diversity, culture, history and nature, come to Suriname. You won’t be disappointed,”
To find details about the bid round, visit www.staatsolie.com/en/shallow-offshore-2-bid-round-2023-2024.