The oil industry in South America is in sever need of positive stimuli – the Argentinian shale wonder has just survived a near-collapse of its government only to be stalled by the coronavirus, Venezuela is falling ever lower, whilst Colombia is struggling to kickstart its oft-lauded shale bounty. Suriname, a Dutch-speaking nation of some 600 000 people, might become just that, South America’s next drilling hotspot. The previous Guyana has had a phenomenal string of successes with its exploratory wells, up until 2020 18 out of the total 20 wells spudded wielded commercially exploitable reserves. Could neighboring Suriname follow in Guyana’s footsteps with an equally awe-inspiring drilling tally? So far it seems that there is every reason to believe it can.

There are two major differences between Suriname and Guyana. The first, and perhaps less important, is that Suriname has been producing some crude from onshore assets since the 1930s, thus oil would not come as an entire novelty for the South American nation’s authorities. The second is that Suriname has had to struggle its way through initial disillusionment, the path to success was by no means immediate and linear. Just as Guyana’s Liza discovery was heating up interest towards the Guyana-Suriname basin, Kosmos Energy drilled the Anapai and Pontoenoe wildcats in 2017 – the first encountered high quality reservoirs but no hydrocarbons, whilst the second found hydrocarbons but was water-bearing. Apache, too, had had unsuccessful wildcats in 2015 and 2017 at Block 53 before starting off a string of high-profile discoveries.

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Source: Oil Price