With TotalEnergies starting the groundwork for Suriname’s first offshore oil development, the company in its environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) underscored the importance of the country being realistic with its local content targets.
“Unmet expectations about employment opportunities may lead to loss of support for the project,” the ESIA outlined.
Suriname does not have local content legislation in place and may be considering a policy instead. The latter is viewed as optimal for the South American nation, according to the head of its state oil company, Annand Jagesar.
The ESIA stipulates a local content plan for all TotalEnergies contractors. A labor management plan will also be developed that includes “measures to maximise local employment opportunities where possible.”
TotalEnergies anticipates job opportunities for around 600 people during the drilling phase. This pool will consist of mostly “highly specialized” individuals “with a small number of local workers” in the construction and installation phase of the project. The production phase differs. TotalEnergies said it will see 100 -150 workers “mostly local” with the supporting offices onshore manned mostly by Surinamese.
According to TotalEnergies, there will be some business opportunities for Surinamese companies to provide goods and services under catering, cleaning, security, logistics and administration.
The Block 58 project is expected to develop close to 700 million barrels of recoverable resources from two fields: Sapakara South and Krabdagu. A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with the capacity to produce 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) will be utilised, connected to subsea wells.
Drilling is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2026.
