TotalEnergies has some marginal targets remaining on Block 58, which could be used as tiebacks to its first Suriname oil development. However, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Patrick Pouyanne, says exploring those is not a priority, as 14 wells have already been drilled.
“We have honestly covered quite a large [group of] targets,” he said, during the company’s September 27 Strategy & Outlook event.
Pouyanne stated, “There are some marginal… targets [to be drilled] which, in fact, will be tied back… to the development we envisage. So, they are not very large, but which will extend the plateau of this initial development. So, we don’t need to rush to explore today to put them into production in seven or eight years…”
With engineering studies set to launch by the end of 2023 and the final investment decision slated for the end of 2024, Suriname’s Block 58 project is set to achieve first oil by 2028. Pouyanne explained that TotalEnergies plans to focus on getting the development up, then circling back.
TotalEnergies also showcased its confidence in the Suriname venture by committing to shouldering a major portion of the project’s capital expenses (CAPEX), despite holding an equal stake with its partner, APA. Under this arrangement, TotalEnergies will pay most of the US$9 billion estimated development cost and in return, will access 75% of APA’s cost oil.
“We are paying part of the CAPEX of our partner. We will recover all that in three years from their cost oil… the higher the price it will be, the quicker it will be,” Pouyanne stated.
Close to 700 million barrels of recoverable resources have been pooled from the Sapakara South and Krabdagu discoveries, expected to be tapped with a floating production, storage and offloading vessel at production capacity of 200,000 barrels of oil per day.
