Suriname may be one of the smallest countries in Latin America, with a population of fewer than 600,000 people, but off its coast lie potentially significant oil and gas deposits that could alter the country’s future. Two large discoveries in recent months by US oil exploration and production company Apache Corporation and French oil major Total have offered hopes for an offshore bonanza for the former Dutch colony. The country is looking to mirror its neighbour Guyana, where ExxonMobil recently started production from deepwater oil blocks.
Suriname currently produces just 16,000 barrels a day from onshore fields. But the US government estimates that the Guyana-Suriname basin may contain nearly 14bn barrels of oil – in line with the resources of Argentina – and more than 32tn cubic feet of natural gas. The country’s ability to turn its resources into commercial oil and gas depends on exploration – the earliest stage of the production process and an activity that stands as a barometer for pressures facing the wider industry.
Oil exploration is an expensive and risky business that can take years and billions of dollars of investment. As cost pressures mount and demands on companies to act on climate change grow, this segment of the industry is coming under intense scrutiny. Once the most glamorous aspect of the oil business, exploration is now one of its most controversial.
Environmentalists and some activist investors – especially in Europe – are pushing oil companies to shrink their legacy fossil fuel businesses, stop their search for new acreage and focus instead on lower-carbon technologies and alternative sources of energy .