Suriname’s Oil Dreams Collide With Geological Reality
- GranMorgu will deliver Suriname its first major offshore oil production, but years later and at a far smaller scale than Guyana’s Stabroek-led boom.
- Recent drilling results suggest the most prolific petroleum fairway lies largely within Guyana’s waters, limiting Suriname’s upside.
- High costs, mixed exploration outcomes, and decarbonization pressures may constrain future investment beyond GranMorgu.
Suriname’s government, in the capital Paramaribo, has been hungrily eyeing neighboring Guyana’s massive world-class oil boom since before the 2020 pandemic. Both impoverished South American nations of less than one million share the Guyana Suriname Basin. The offshore basin is delivering an oil boom that is exceeding all expectations, making Guyana, based on GDP per capita, one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Suriname, which is one of South America’s poorest countries and is experiencing a deep, long-running economic crisis, is hungering after the rapid economic growth such a hydrocarbon boom will deliver.
In a stunning development, neighboring Guyana went from first discovery to first oil in a mere four years in an industry where that can take a decade or more. The former British colony is after a decade South America’s third largest oil producer pumping around 900,000 barrels per day. This along with Guyana’s gross domestic product (GDP) soaring nearly nine-fold over the last decade caught the attention of Paramaribo. By 2021, President Chan Santokhi, who was under pressure from a deep economic crisis, was convinced a world class oil boom would lift Suriname out of poverty. This saw the president hopeful the Block 58 discoveries would be developed and operational by 2025.
There was, however, a moment when Suriname’s much-anticipated oil boom wavered. During 2022, TotalEnergies, the operator of Block 58, and 50% partner APA Corporation chose to delay the final investment decision (FID) for developing the Sapakara and Krabdagu oil discoveries. The energy companies made this decision due to poor drilling success, the high gas-to-oil ratio of some discoveries, and a mismatch between seismic data and drilling results. This delayed the prospect of first oil, and consequently Suriname’s urgently needed world-class oil boom, by years. Nonetheless, by October 2024, TotalEnergies announced the $10.5 billion FID had been approved.
The deepwater project, named GranMorgu, is targeting reservoirs containing nearly 760 million barrels of crude oil. The facility will be operated by an all-electric floating production, storage, and offloading unit (FPSO) with a capacity to lift 220,000 barrels per day. First oil from GranMorgu is expected in 2028. This is some years after 2025, which was the initial prediction, but the latest news from TotalEnergies confirms GranMorgu will be a groundbreaking energy project for Suriname. The project will be a model for low-carbon extraction of crude oil in an industry dogged by high emissions.
You see, aside from the FPSO being all-electric, there will be no routine flaring with all associated gas produced injected into tanks on the vessel. As a result, less than 16 kilograms of carbon are produced per barrel of crude oil lifted. This is less than the global average of 60kg per barrel produced reported for 2015, with industry analysts claiming it has fallen to as low as 18 kg per barrel as big oil strives to become carbon neutral. For these reasons, GranMorgu is viewed with excitement by many in an industry under considerable pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The successful start-up of the TotalEnergies project will go a long way to boosting Suriname’s crisis-riven economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the former Dutch colony’s GDP will grow by a stunning 55% during 2028 when production starts. Nonetheless, there is a long way to go before the former Dutch colony experiences the rapid growth experienced by Guyana. Overall drilling results were not particularly positive despite the view that the oil potential of the Guyana Suriname Basin is far greater than the United States Geological Survey (USGS) initially believed. While APA reported the discovery of oil with the Baja wildcat well in Block 53 offshore Suriname during late 2022, there have been very few such announcements since.
Malaysia’s state-controlled energy company Petronas made a series of hydrocarbon discoveries in offshore Block 52, which is contiguous to Block 58. These are the Sloanea, Roystonea, and Fusaea discoveries. Despite those discoveries, ExxonMobil, which was a 50% partner in Block 52, relinquished that interest, handing it over to Petronas in November 2024. Since then, only Sloanea, which is a natural gas discovery, has been declared commercially viable. The other two discoveries have yet to be fully appraised, with doubts existing as to whether they are commercially viable. Even if they are, it may take a decade or longer for them to be developed and brought online.
The results of Petronas’ latest multi-well drilling campaign in Block 52 were not stellar. The Caiman-1 wildcat well, the first of four wells to be drilled in 2025 and 2026, was spudded on July 21, 2025, in the western portion of Block 52. The exploration well was plugged and abandoned on December 6, 2025. While Petronas described the results as encouraging, there were no announcements that the well found commercially viable hydrocarbon reservoirs for possible exploitation. Petronas will continue with its planned drilling campaign as it seeks to delineate resources in Block 52 and determine whether the Sloanea natural gas discovery can be developed and brought to production.
This news comes on the back of APA and its partners in Block 53 relinquishing most of the petroleum acreage to Staatsolie, Suriname’s national oil company and industry regulator. That is despite the August 2022 Baja-1 discovery, where oil was discovered in the same depositional system of the Krabdagu discovery in Block 58, seven miles (11.5 kilometers) to the west. Indeed, the Krabdagu discovery forms part of the GranMorgu project. During June 2025, TotalEnergies acquired a 25% working interest in the remaining area of Block 53 around the Baja-1 discovery from Moeve, formerly known as CEPSA.
The acreage relinquished by APA during February 2024 was repackaged by Staatsolie and offered as a new offshore oil block. During June 2025, Suriname’s petroleum regulator awarded that acreage to Petronas as Block 66. Malaysia’s national oil company signed a production sharing contract with Staatsolie, giving it an 80% working interest in the block, with Paradise Oil Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the national oil company, acquiring the remaining 20%. That deepwater oil acreage is contiguous to Petronas’ 80% controlled Block 52, where the company is the operator, and Paradise Oil is also a 20% partner.
There are signs, as illustrated by recent drilling results, that the petroleum fairway passing through the prolific Stabroek Block in offshore Guyana does not extend as far into Suriname’s territorial waters as initially speculated. For some time, analysts reasoned that the hydrocarbon fairway extended through Block 58 into adjacent Blocks 52 and 53. Indeed, recent drilling results indicate the lion’s share of petroleum held in the Guyana Suriname Basin is primarily located in offshore Guyana rather than in the former Dutch colony.
Offshore Suriname may be the hottest frontier oil and gas exploration in South America, but there are signs that time is running out for the country to explore that vast offshore petroleum potential. While the development of GranMorgu will deliver an economic windfall, the facility’s successful operation may not be sufficient to attract the tremendous capital needed to develop the vast oil potential thought to exist in Suriname’s territorial waters. A combination of uncertain drilling results, high development costs, and pressures to curb carbon emissions, coupled with the threat of peak oil, is weighing heavily on investment in offshore frontier oil basins.
By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com
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