Energy Summit being planned, which will also involve, Brazil and French Guiana

Guyana and Suriname have agreed to jointly develop oil and gas reserves, which will see greater collaboration in these two Caribbean states which have discovered oil.

The two territories yesterday consented to pursue proposals to craft a joint strategy to develop natural gas reserves, which also potentially aims at tapping into the lucrative Brazil market. Speaking at a joint press conference with Suriname President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali yesterday highlighted the need for greater collaboration.

“In the area of oil and gas and recognising that both countries will be key players in the oil and gas sector, we have decided that we’re going to collaborate and develop a ‘Joint Approach Strategy’, not only in the development of the industry itself, but in supporting the development of our human resources to meet the industry requirement,” Ali said.

Both presidents explained that they have also decided on an initiative, where they will invite the presidents of Brazil and French Guiana to be part of an energy summit.

Arco Norte gas and electricity generation project main topic for discussion

This summit will discuss the Arco Norte gas pipeline and electricity generation project. This project envisages the interconnection of the Guyana, Northern Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana power systems.

The Guyana/Suriname region has in the past few years been a hotspot of successful offshore oil exploration. Interestingly, the region currently has only one production unit, which is the Exxon’s Liza Destiny in Guyana butl in the next few years will have several new Floating Production Storage and Offloading  (FPSO) units deployed to develop the discovered resources.

A FPSO unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil.

More oil found off the coast of Suriname

In the meantime, oil and gas firms TotalEnergies and Apache Corporation have discovered more oil off the coast of Suriname. The duo has hit oil at the Sapakara South-1 offshore well at Block 58, where they’ve previously made the Maka Central, Sapakara West, Kwaskwasi, and Keskesi oil discoveries.

The Saparak Sapakara South-1 discovery was made four kilometers southeast of the Sapakara West-1 discovery. The news of the new Suriname discovery comes just a day after Exxon said yesterday that it had made another discovery in its Stabroek block in nearby Guyana, adding to the US oil majors nine billion barrels of oil equivalent found in Guyana in recent years.

“ExxonMobil envisions at least six projects online by 2027 and sees potential for up to 10 projects to develop its current recoverable resource base,” ExxonMobil was quoted last week as saying.