PARAMARIBO, SURINAME – Industry leaders and government officials insist that Suriname’s ability to benefit from upcoming offshore oil production will rely on sustained investments in skills, education and local content capacity.
The statements were made during a panel discussion at the launch of EnergyJobs.sr late last month in Paramaribo. Several officials participated in the panel to discuss ‘Industry Readiness and Future Workforce Needs’.
TotalEnergies EP Suriname General Manager Artur Nunes da Silva said discussions about workforce gaps must start with recognizing Surinamese potential. “Surinamese are often too pessimistic about themselves,” he said.
He noted that the Surinamese professionals he has worked with are “of very good quality”. He added, “Our experience has confirmed that Staatsolie, for example, I can tell you it is probably the only regulator in my career that has never been late for an approval and always does things fully within the regulations. You have very good professionals here.”
While the challenge is partly scale, the country does not yet have the numbers required to meet future demand. He stressed that the biggest gap is a strong scientific foundation. “Mathematics, physics, the fundamentals, that is the basis of the industry,” he said.
Vandana Gangaram Panday, Director of the Staatsolie Hydrocarbon Institute, said local content readiness depends on structural reforms and better educational outcomes. Only 40% of students complete secondary school, she noted, calling it “a shameful number if you want to deliver a qualified workforce”. She added that small and medium enterprises can only meet international standards if government and industry work together on training, technical classrooms and internships, warning that planning must look a generation ahead.
The panel also addressed the balance between expatriate and local workers. Both Gangaram Panday and Kuldipsingh Port Facilities’ Krishen Ratan said companies generally prefer to hire locally but require strong talent pipelines. Ratan explained that KPF requires a “local shadow” for every expatriate expert to ensure knowledge transfer and nationalization within three to five years.
In their remarks, Patrick Brunings, Minister of Oil, Gas and Environment, and Dirk Currie, Minister of Education, Science, and Culture, emphasized the urgency of preparing Suriname’s workforce. Brunings stated that the country must seize today’s opportunities to build “Suriname 2.0”, a diversified and sustainable economy supported by new skills. Currie called the launch “a practical expression of local content development”, saying the national mission is to prepare a workforce that is “competent, competitive and confident”.
