ENERGY Caribbean Yearbook (2013-14)

Countries
suriname
Keen interest in the
deepwater blocks
Suriname is billing itself as the
“next giant”, meaning that
in due course it expects to
make a discovery as large as
Zaedyus in next-door French
Guiana.
In late 2011, 840 million barrels
of oil on a P10 basis were found
by the Zaedyus well, which has
transformed prospects for the Guyana/
Suriname basin to the west. Zaedyus
encountered oil in a fan system similar
to that found in Tullow Oil’s Jubilee
field offshore Ghana in West Africa:
Zaedyus discover off French Guiana (courtesy Tullow)
Suriname is naturally hoping these geological
conditions extend westwards into its own waters
Tullow’s geologists thought this could
be replicated on the western side of
the Atlantic – and so it proved. Shell
and Northpet Investments are Tullow’s
partners in the Guyana Maritime
licence where Zaedyus was drilled.
Suriname is naturally hoping
these geological conditions extend
westwards into its own waters (Guyana
is keeping its fingers crossed that
its own offshore may be similarly
favoured).
Suriname’s national energy company
Staatsolie, which deals with oil and gas
matters on behalf of the government,
has offered four blocks for bidding,
which it believes to be in the path of
any westward hydrocarbon trend – 54,
55, 56 and 57. Bids close on July 26 and
the company hopes to be able to sign
production sharing contracts with the
winners by year’s end.
These blocks are sited in the
Demerara Plateau, described by
Staatsolie as “a prominent submarine
plateau located 5 degrees north of
the coasts of Suriname and French
Guiana and, based on available data,
interpreted as a margin segment,
comprising thinned continental crust,
bound to the north and south by
transform-type zones in which transtensional
extension is accommodated.”
That will be music to the ears of
geologists. Wim Dwarkasing, deputy
director of exploration and production
contracts for Staatsolie, enthuses
that “these blocks are all based on
structures and the success rate is
usually higher with such blocks.” He
adds: “The Demerara Plateau is all part
of what you have seen on the west
coast of Africa where they have had
these very good finds, so that’s also an
attractive feature of the bid round.”
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