APA Corporation Executive Vice President of Exploration Tracey Henderson argued that the success of the Guyana-Suriname Basin is evidence that long-term investment in oil and gas exploration can deliver major discoveries.
In a June 25 interview on Rystad Energy’s Let’s Talk Energy, she said the industry continues to open new exploration opportunities despite years of reduced investment.
She pointed to emerging basins as key areas of recent success, including the Guyana-Suriname Basin, stating that “the success rates in the emerging basins has actually been better. If you think about what we’ve done over the last 10 to 15 years — opening up Guyana-Suriname, opening up the Orange Basin in Namibia, the Eastern Med, and now Alaska — there are plays that are being opened and resources that are being added. But the underinvestment in exploration over the last decade is going to have a significant impact.
Henderson explained that APA remained committed to its oil and gas strategy while much of the industry reduced spending, driven by differing views on long-term hydrocarbon demand.
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She said the industry’s pullback in exploration has reduced future opportunities, even as global demand for oil and gas continues.
“That’s why you’re seeing such a renewed interest in exploration today — supermajors out hoovering up acreage along the West African coast again, companies trying to get into the hot basins like Namibia, Suriname, Alaska. The view is definitely shifting from renewables and diminishing value to: we’ve got a big demand gap now that we need to meet between now and even 2050, based on the IEA [International Energy Agency] stats.”
“We actually need to replenish these portfolios and give ourselves some long-term optionality for growth,” she went on to state.
The Guyana–Suriname Basin has emerged as one of the world’s most active and commercially attractive offshore exploration provinces, driven by major discoveries in both Guyana and Suriname.
According to TotalEnergies, the basin continues to deliver low-cost, high-quality oil opportunities, supported by strong source rock and high-quality reservoirs, attracting sustained investment from major oil companies.
Exploration success in the region began with ExxonMobil’s Liza discovery offshore Guyana in 2015 and has since expanded across multiple blocks in both countries, confirming the basin’s significant remaining potential for new developments and long-term production growth.
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