The oil market is increasingly diversified. In just a few decades, crude oil has gone from being produced almost entirely in a handful of Middle Eastern countries to major producers spread across much of the world, including America. Two of these new players also stand out for their small countries that do not even reach a million inhabitantsbut they have notable crude oil reserves. These two countries are neighbors and, as expected, they share crude oil deposits (natural geography does not always respect man-made boundaries) that lie in border areas or even extend into territorial waters of these two states. These deposits are sometimes a subject of discussion (as is the case between Venezuela and Guyana), but this time, it seems that it will be different: Guyana and Suriname have started negotiations to launch a common plan of production of gas and oil in the fields that they share or that are in border areas. This is only a first step, but it brings hope for the oil industry.
Suriname and Guyana took the first step towards achieving joint exploitation of gas and oil reserves off the coasts of the two countries neighbors of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). “It won’t happen tomorrow, but it’s important that we now have confirmation from both parties that we want to work together. It could take years before we come up with a development concept,” Annand Jagesar, director of Staatsolie.Ware Tijd’.
Jagesar was in Guyana as part of a delegation from Suriname that included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and International Cooperation, Albert Ramdin, who met with the Vice President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo. Jagesar assured the newspaper that the two countries would jointly examine a development concept to make the exploitation of certain gas and oil condensate deposits viable. This collaboration refers to THE The discoveries of Makka and Kwaskwasi in Suriname, near the border with Guyana, and the discoveries of Haimara and Pluma in Guyana, also close to the border.
The wealth of Guyana and Suriname
Expectations placed on crude oil from Suriname and Guyana, two countries that united, they barely reach 1.4 million inhabitantshave become the hope of the oil industry and consuming countries. It is true that the future production of these two countries is not going to “save the world”, but it represents a before and after for the industry because of the ease with which this new torrent of crude oil is produced and its low cost. costs. With will, financial power and technology, a large amount of oil can be produced relatively quickly.
The analytics company Global data conducted a survey this summer to assess which oil fields and regions have the best prospects in the short and medium term. Around 33% of respondents consider that the emerging Guyana-Suriname oil zones They could be the main engine of growth for the oil industry. The Guyana-Suriname Basin (a sedimentary basin from which Guyana, Brazil and soon Suriname “drink”) attracted attention after ExxonMobil announced large quantities of oil in the Liza-1 block off the coast of the Guyana in 2015.
Since then, This “piece” of water and its surroundings have become the epicenter of new oil production. Everyone wants to imitate Guyana, this small country which went from no crude oil production to more than 600,000 barrels per day. However, the latest projections already indicate that its peak oil production (the maximum it will be able to produce) will be 1.5 million barrels, an astonishing quantity. Never before has a country with such a small population produced so much crude oil.
Suriname, for its part, is now looking for its own “miracle” in the same sedimentary basin exploited by Guyana. Suriname’s crude oil production expected to increase 20-fold in coming years until reaching 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day. In the coming years, Guyana and Suriname could together produce nearly 2 million barrels per day, an amount that would almost double their population, becoming the region with the highest oil production per capita in the world.
Collaboration is the best asset
“The greatest asset of a collaboration is scale. With the merger, the desired scale can be achieved, but many other issues will also need to be explored.”Jagesar pointed out. Ramdin stressed that the meeting in Guyana “took place in a very pleasant and open atmosphere” and that both countries recognize the importance of cooperation in the gas field. Ramdim assured that there were possibilities and that both countries would address them in collaboration with Staatsolie, the state oil company which is currently exchanging information with the Guyanese authorities at the technical and commercial level and recording what the common potential is.
Ramdin also explained that based on this, strategies and scenarios will be developed on how the planned cooperation can be realized. ““In any event, this will be a high priority over the next two to three months and the intention of this conversation was to clearly reach agreement at government level that this must be part of the strategic oil cooperation and gas between Suriname and Guyana.”
Immediately after Staatsolie, TotalEnergies and Apache Corporation announced on October 1 that the Final Investment Decision (FID) had been made for the production of Block 58 oil reserves, Jagdeo contacted the Suriname government and requested the holding of ‘a meeting to hold negotiations on the joint exploitation of gas and crude oil reserves of the two neighboring countries.
