TotalEnergies’ upcoming project offshore Suriname may exceed its planned production plateau of 220,000 barrels of oil per day (b/d), with Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné saying the development could potentially handle up to 240,000 b/d.
The GranMorgu project, located in Suriname’s Block 58, is on track for first oil in 2028. Speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings call late July, Pouyanné said the production system, like others designed for 220,000 b/d, could likely accommodate a 10% increase without major redesigns.
“These machines, when we were designing them for 220,000, they can easily go up to 240,000,” he said, referencing the production vessel planned for GranMorgu. “If we can connect these types of [additional discoveries], it will give more value.”
The CEO noted a recent discovery in the range of 50 million barrels at nearby Block 53, which TotalEnergies acquired from CEPSA, could be tied into the GranMorgu development to help support or extend plateau production.
The potential upside echoes a trend seen just across the maritime border in Guyana, where ExxonMobil has steadily boosted oil output from its offshore projects through optimization. Without adding new floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs), Exxon has added 130,000 b/d of capacity across its three producing developments raising their combined optimized capacity from 560,000 b/d to 690,000 b/d.
These increases were achieved through de-bottlenecking and system throughput upgrades, delivering substantial financial returns at a fraction of the cost of deploying new FPSOs.
While TotalEnergies has not explicitly committed to this manner of optimization, Pouyanné indicated that the company is considering ways to unlock more value from GranMorgu by appraising previous discoveries and planning tiebacks that may extend or lift the plateau.
“We are trying to look to come back on some [discoveries] and to appraise… Even if there’s maybe not enough to make a second FPSO… The objective is to extend the plateau and to make a higher plateau to create a lot of value from this infrastructure,” Pouyanné said.
SBM Offshore is constructing the GranMorgu FPSO and has been granted a contract to operate and maintain it when it is commissioned. TotalEnergies operates the Block 58 project in partnership with APA Corporation and Staatsolie, which has opted to participate.
