Suriname and Guyana move toward joint exploitation of gas reserves

Suriname and Guyana have taken the first step towards achieving the joint exploitation of gas reserves off the coast of the two neighbouring Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.

“It won’t happen tomorrow, but it is important that we now have confirmation from both sides that we want to work together. It could take years before we have found a development concept,” Staatsolie director, Annand Jagesar, told the ‘de Ware Tijd’ newspaper.

Jagesar was in Guyana as part of a Suriname delegation that included Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation Minister, Albert Ramdin that met with Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Jagesar told the newspaper that the two countries will jointly examine a development concept to make exploitation of certain reservoirs of gas condensates feasible.

He said this concerns the Makka and Kwaskwasi discoveries in Suriname close to the border with Guyana and the Haimara and Pluma discoveries in Guyana, which is also close to the border.

“The biggest asset of a collaboration is scale. By merging, the scale could be achieved. But many other issues will also have to be investigated,” Jagesar said.

Ramdin said that the meeting in Guyana “took place in a very pleasant and open atmosphere”, and that both countries recognize the importance of cooperation in the field of gas.

He said there are possibilities, and the two countries will tackle them together with Staatsolie with the state-owned oil company now engaged in exchanging information with the authorities in Guyana at a technical and business level and record what the joint potential is.

Ramdin said based on this, strategies and scenarios will be made on how the intended cooperation can take shape.

“In any case,” he noted, “this will have a high priority in the coming two to three months and the intention of this conversation was to clearly agree at government level that this must be part of the strategic cooperation in oil and gas between Suriname and Guyana.”

He said the technical details will be discussed in the coming weeks.

Immediately after Staatsolie, TotalEnergies and Apache Corporation announced on 1 October that the final investment decision (FID) for the production of oil reserves in Block 58 had been taken, Jagdeo contacted the Surinamese government, requesting that discussions be held soon about jointly exploiting the gas reserves of the two neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, Staatsolie is moving towards a second FID, namely in Block 52, where Malaysian Petronas has discovered recoverable oil reserves.

There are reports that Malaysian Petronas has found an amount equal to more than 400 million barrels of oil there, allowing for a project that would utilise 100,000 barrels of oil daily.

Last week, Staatsolie began discussions with Petronas to get this project off the ground and  Jagesar explained that they could announce the FID as early as 2027 and begin oil production in Block 52 by 2030.

Jagesar said that, with technical adjustments, Petronas could potentially use a floating production, storage, and offloading unit they already have for the intended project. This would allow production to start sooner.

Large quantities of natural gas have also been found in this block. Staatsolie and Petronas are also negotiating about this and the aim is to get the first gas development off the ground as early as 2031. —PARAMARIBO, Suriname (CMC)

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