In the fourth part of our Special Focus on Guyana & Suriname, Upstream examines interest in Suriname’s shallow-water licensing round
Apache’s oil discoveries on Block 58 and the Petronas-operated Sloanea-1 find on Block 52 have stimulated interest in a Suriname shallow-water bid round.
The eight blocks on offer, extending from the west of the country, cover a total area of 13,524 square kilometres.
State oil company Staatsolie is promoting them as lying in the migration pathway between long-producing onshore fields and new deep-water discoveries extending along a so-called “golden lane” as far as ExxonMobil’s Liza-Payara discoveries in Guyana.
The acreage on offer is considered up-dip from an Albian and Cenoamanian-Turonian depocentre and source kitchen, and includes Canje and Aptian source rocks, according to London-based consultancy Envoi. A data room opened on 30 November 2020 and bids are due by 30 April 2021.
“We have 21 companies registered, with a broad range of profiles. I have been absolutely bowled over by the amount of interest in this round,” says Staatsolie vice president for offshore, Brian Glover.
Staatsolie has already had some success in attracting investors to onshore acreage flanking its Tambaredjo and Calcutta fields, which together have 1 billion barrels of 14 to 16 degrees API crude in place and produce a steady 6 million barrels per year.
Meanwhile, UK-based Bahamas Petroleum plans to carry out appraisal drilling and extended well tests at the Weg Naar Zee area in 2021, while Trinidad & Tobago’s Decker Petroleum is eyeing five exploration wells on the Nickerie block.
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Source: Upstream | This text was excerpted from the media outlet cited on February 23, 2021 and is provided to Noia members for information purposes only. Any opinion expressed therein is neither attributable to nor endorsed by Noia.
