By mid-year 2023, Block 58 operator TotalEnergies SE expects to confirm the desired estimated resources to kickstart production offshore Suriname, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Patrick Pouyanné said.
This could result in another delay of the long-awaited Final Investment Decision (FID).
“We have at least the first oil pool of a potential project – half of it is confirmed. We are drilling wells on the Krabdagu discovery, two wells, I think. We have accelerated as well. And I hope that by the middle of the year, we will be able to confirm that we have the oil pool that we are looking for in Suriname,” he disclosed to investors during Total’s Feb. 8 earnings conference.
Total and partner APA Corporation had made the first commercial discovery back in 2020. Since then, four more commercial discoveries have been made.
But of its current developments, Pouyanné described Suriname as “a little more complex.”
The company had encountered issues with understanding the reservoirs discovered and a mismatch between the seismic data and the results of the delineation wells.
Recently, the company had positive results after successfully drilling and conducting flow tests at the Sapakara South-2 (SPS-2) appraisal well. It was the second appraisal well to test the previously announced discovery.
The well is located approximately 4.6 kilometres (3 miles) south of the Sapakara South-1 (SPS-1) appraisal well.
SPS-2 encountered approximately 36 metres (118 feet) of net oil pay in high-quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoir. Data collected from the flow test and subsequent pressure build-up indicated incremental connected resources of more than 200 million barrels of oil in place.
