TotalEnergies Chief Financial Officer Jean-Pierre Sbraire expressed confidence to shareholders that the company can hit the US$9 billion budget it set for Suriname’s first offshore development.
Sbraire’s assurance comes in the face of global inflationary pressures. He said, “Today, I would say we are 20% higher in most of the costs.”
But at 20%, the TotalEnergies CFO said the company can “manage.”
“That’s why we can sanction our projects like the ones we have done,” he added.
But shareholders are still concerned. It was Bertrand Hodee from Kepler Cheuvreux who posed the question.
This was Sbraire’s response: “What I can tell you is at the end…the cost CAPEX or OPEX will be lower than US$20 per barrel… a strict criteria [but] we are committed to it, so we’ll meet that target… I’m optimistic that we will achieve [it].”
TotalEnergies has reserved SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward® hull for the development. The Dutch floater specialist was pre-selected as the preferred bidder over Japan’s MODEC in May.
TotalEnergies said it is targeting a Tesla-like FPSO for Suriname. The vessel will produce around 200,000 barrels per day from the Sapakara South and Krabdagu discoveries in Suriname’s Block 58. Both are said to hold 700 million barrels of oil.
