Differences in underground heat, burial depth, and petroleum migration may help explain why Guyana’s Golden Lane has delivered repeated discoveries while parts of offshore Suriname have produced uneven results, according to a new basin modelling study.
GeoExpro published the study results on July 9, 2026. Kenneth Shipper and Paul Mann of the University of Houston’s CBTH Project conducted the research with Andrew Pepper of This Is Petroleum Systems.
The researchers modelled petroleum generation across approximately 245 kilometres of the Guyana-Suriname offshore margin. Their findings indicate that the conditions needed to generate and move oil into reservoirs change significantly between Guyana and Suriname.
More than 54 discoveries have established the Golden Lane since the Liza-1 discovery offshore Guyana in 2015. Production from Guyana’s Stabroek Block has reached more than 900,000 barrels per day.
The eastward extension of the petroleum system into offshore Suriname has been less certain. Several wells drilled beyond the main producing fairway have not encountered commercial petroleum. The study found that the source rocks supporting the Golden Lane reached favorable temperatures across central and southeastern Guyana. These conditions allowed large volumes of oil and gas to be generated and expelled.
Further north and east, the rocks experienced lower levels of heat in some areas. This reduced the amount of petroleum generated and may have limited the distance it could migrate.
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The model suggests that oil or gas may not have reached some younger reservoirs targeted by exploration wells. Petroleum generated at greater depths must travel upwards through layers of rock before entering a reservoir, creating what the researchers described as vertical migration risk.
This could help account for unsuccessful or non-commercial wells even where good source rocks are present.
The study also found that the type of petroleum changes across the basin. Areas near the northwestern Stabroek Block, including Liza, are more oil-prone. Conditions become more favorable for gas and condensate closer to the Guyana-Suriname maritime boundary before shifting back towards oil in southeastern Suriname.
Researchers cautioned that the model does not perfectly match every known discovery. The type of petroleum found in a field can also depend on when a reservoir formed, whether it leaked, and which phase of the petroleum charge it captured.
Deeper source rocks may still support exploration beyond the established Golden Lane. The model indicates that older Aptian source rocks extend farther into offshore Suriname than the younger source system that charged much of Guyana’s producing area.
The Macaw-1 and Araku Deep-1 wells, along with three planned wells in Block 52, were identified as important tests of that proposed extension.
