TotalEnergies is preparing to develop $9 billion oil resources in Suriname

French supermajor TotalEnergies has begun scouting the market for deepwater platforms and support vessels to begin developing massive resources discovered off Suriname, unnamed sources with knowledge of the bidding told Bloomberg on Friday.

Exploration and development of resources in the Atlantic Basin is now more alive than ever, following the huge offshore developments in Guyana led by ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies plans to exploit the resources discovered in Guyana’s neighbor Suriname.

TotalEnergies, which partners with APA Corp offshore Suriname, has already made several discoveries in the area. The companies are expected to make the final investment decision (FID) to develop some of the resources as early as next month, according to Bloomberg sources.

TotalEnergies is said to have ordered a hull for a 200,000 bpd production vessel, the clearest sign yet that the French supermajor will move to develop the project.

“They booked this case,” Annand Jagesar, CEO of Suriname’s state oil company Staatsolie, told Bloomberg.

“You’re not going to pay a lot of money for it to sit there,” Jagesar added.

TotalEnergies and APA plan to make the final investment decision on the Block 58 project by the end of 2024, targeting first oil in 2028.

Crude oil discoveries in Suriname opened up access to about 2.4 billion barrels in reserves, Wood Mackenzie analysts estimated. The consultancy also reported that the South American nation holds about 12.5 trillion cubic meters in natural gas reserves.

A total of nine offshore discoveries have been made in Suriname in the past six years, but commercial development of any of them is still in the future.

Suriname is often seen as a candidate for a repeat of Guyana’s oil boom, as the two neighboring countries share a hydrocarbon pool. However, exploration efforts have taken longer in Suriname, and Exxon’s colossal success with the Stabroek Block and its dozens of discoveries has yet to be replicated in neighboring Guyana.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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