Investors have already lined up to grab Suriname’s deepwater blocks when the auction opens later this year. But Staatsolie’s Offshore Vice President, Glenn Corrie is urging that attention also be paid to the shallow water auction set for 2023.
That bid round will see some eight million acres of shallow water blocks up for auction, a small fraction of Suriname’s offshore acreage that remains unlicensed.
Over 60% of Suriname’s deepwater acreage remain unlicensed; new bid round nears
“It is a very large area that remains unlicensed and that is the real upside, that is the real opportunity for future activity,” the Staatsolie VP Offshore said.
Suriname held a bid round for shallow water blocks back in 2021 but interest was only shown in three of the eight blocks. The blocks that went on offer are directly in the migration pathway between the giant onshore producing fields and the recent deepwater discoveries at Block 58, which are both typed to the Albian, Cenomanian & Turonian (ACT) source kitchen.
No oil production has started offshore, but major discoveries were made over the last two years in Block 58. Five discoveries have been made at wells in Block 58. This has now sparked renewed investor interest in Suriname’s offshore plays.
Guyana, Suriname added over 1.2 billion barrels of discovered resources so far this year
Its neighbor to the west, Guyana is dubbed the hottest new oil spot in the world, a name Suriname aspires to adapt. ExxonMobil and its partners have made a string of discoveries in recent years totaling nearly 11 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Exxon has its eyes set on the production of 1.2 million barrels of oil per day from the Stabroek Block by 2027.
