As TotalEnergies plans its first offshore development in Suriname’s Block 58, it is taking a page out of ExxonMobil’s book with its cost-saving operations in the prolific Stabroek Block offshore Guyana.
“With Suriname, we are trying to work on an innovative solution: looking carefully to what our big friend in Guyana is doing to benefit from their own way to develop fields,” Total’s Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanne said to investors on Feb. 8. “We try to transfer part of their way to manage some of the leased FPSO [floating, production storage offloading vessel] in order to be efficient on the costs.”
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Exxon has five projects sanctioned in Guyana: three online and two incoming. A sixth project awaits approval. Dutch company SBM Offshore is behind all but one production vessel, for which MODEC was selected.
The Dutch floater specialist was granted a 10-year lease by Exxon for FPSO Liza Destiny and up to a two-year lease for FPSOs Liza Unity, Prosperity, and ONE GUYANA. After that, the FPSOs’ ownership transfers to Exxon. SBM Offshore later signed a 10-year Operations and Maintenance Enabling Agreement with Exxon for the four vessels. The company has been utilising its Fast4Ward concept in the design and construction of these FPSOs.
Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, has said the “design one, build many” concept is a huge factor in the consistent production ramp-up at its Guyana projects.
But who will TotalEnergies select for its first Suriname floater? MODEC or SBM Offshore?
Both contractors have initiated early conceptual engineering studies for the touted 200,000 barrels per day FPSO that Total envisions to pump the nearly 700 million barrels of oil in the Sapakara South and Krabdagu fields.
Whoever wins the contract, essentially captures Suriname’s emerging market.
