The Guyana-Suriname Basin stands out as a rare asset in today’s competitive energy landscape, offering what the industry refers to as “advantaged barrels”, according to Ricardo Bedregal, Executive Director for Upstream LATAM at S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Suriname Energy, Oil and Gas Summit earlier this year, Bedregal said the basin’s high-quality resources position it aptly amid shifting global energy priorities.
“We use a term in the industry, what we call the advantaged barrels, meaning basins or fields that have high productivity of hydrocarbons, low cost to produce, and also they have a low intensity [of] emissions of CO₂, and Suriname, in the Guyana Basin, has this so-called advantaged barrels,” he explained.
Guyana’s oil production stands out globally due to its low costs and low carbon emissions. And Guyana is positioned to play a major role in delivering low carbon intensity barrels to a global economy still dependent on fossil fuel to meet its energy needs. Hess Corporation, now Chevron, a 30% stakeholder in the prolific ExxonMobil-operated Stabroek Block offshore the South American country, has said the world will need those low-cost, high-value resources.
Bedregal said that even in scenarios where global demand for oil decreases due to the energy transition, barrels from the basin are more likely to retain market share because of their low-emission and cost-efficient profile.
Bedregal noted that these factors give the region an edge over other emerging oil plays. “You don’t find those easily in other parts of the world,” he said, adding that Guyana and Suriname are among the few with this level of geological and commercial advantage. This places the basin in a stronger position to attract sustained investment.
He stressed that while the geological potential is clear, success also hinges on political and regulatory stability. “If an investor… knows that the contract terms or fiscal terms won’t change during the game, that’s a very important part of the process,” he added.
Guyana-Suriname Basin currently utilizes a third of Noble’s drillship fleet | OilNOW
Data transparency is also key. Bedregal welcomed recent signals from Surinamese authorities about a more open data policy, calling it “a very first important step” that can reduce perceived investment risk in a frontier basin.
