Malaysian state oil firm Petronas is expected to conduct more exploration drilling at Suriname’s offshore Block 52 this year after a key 2024 oil discovery in the area raised prospects for future development, energy consultancy Westwood Global Energy Group said on Wednesday.
The Fusaea-1 well, drilled in 2024, is located near the Roystonea-1 discovery made by Petronas in 2023.
“We’re expecting Petronas to conduct more exploration drilling around these discoveries later this year as they look to secure more resource for a potential future development,” Westwood analyst Andrew Jackson said during the firm’s State of Exploration 2025 webinar.
Westwood said Fusaea is one of 19 potentially commercial discoveries made globally from 75 high-impact wells drilled in 2024. While high-impact wells are defined by Westwood as targets believed to contain over 100 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), not all discoveries from these programs met that threshold. Westwood said 16 of the 19 were estimated to hold at least 100 million boe.
Wood Mackenzie has said the two oil discoveries in Block 52 could support a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility with a processing capacity of 100,000 barrels per day. These finds could serve as the foundation for Suriname’s second offshore oil development, following the TotalEnergies-led Block 58 development expected to start production in 2028.
Suriname’s state oil company, Staatsolie, has signaled its support for development at Block 52, but a gas development is more likely to come first, from significant volumes of gas also found there. Managing Director Annand Jagesar said in February that Petronas is expected to make a final investment decision (FID) for Block 52 in 2026.
The push toward development is backed by fiscal incentives. Earlier this year, Petronas and Staatsolie signed a letter of agreement for a 10-year tax-free period from the start of gas production at the block. Petronas has floated the possibility of a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project in Suriname, with Rystad Energy estimating such a project could start as early as 2031.
