Petronas’ Roystonea-1 and Fusaea-1 discoveries in Block 52 offshore Suriname are estimated to hold recoverable resources approaching 400 million barrels, according to new numbers released by UK-based consultancy group Wood Mackenzie.
“This could be enough to support an FPSO [floating production storage and offloading vessel] with an oil processing capacity of up to 100,000 [barrels per day] b/d,” Mark Oberstoetter, Head of Americas Upstream, said.
Roystonea-1 was announced in November 2023. Petronas said the discovery is poised to play a crucial role in its international upstream ventures.
Fusaea-1 is the most recent. It was spudded in Feb. 2024 and successfully drilled to a total depth of 5,227 meters. Petronas encountered several oil and gas-bearing Campanian sandstone reservoir packages.
“Suriname is a bright spot from those exploration efforts. It plays to PETRONAS’ existing competencies in LNG [liquid natural gas] development while providing oil to offset its LNG-weighted portfolio,” Julie Wilson, Exploration Research Director said.
Petronas also discovered Sloanea-1 in 2020 at the same block. Drilling at Sloanea-2 is ongoing.
Block 52, covering an area of 4,749 square kilometers, is strategically located north of the coast of Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city, within the promising Guyana-Suriname Basin. Petronas Suriname E&P as the block’s operator has a 50% participating interest and ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Suriname B.V. holds the remaining 50%.
In addition to Block 52, Petronas Suriname also operates Block 48 with a 100% participating interest and holds a 30% non-operating participating interest in the adjacent Block 53, where the Baja-1 oil discovery was made in 2022.
