As Guyana prepares to become a major oil production nation the spotlight is firmly on the Guyana-Suriname Basin and the former British colony’s neighbor Suriname. After decades of poor drilling results, ExxonMobil’s slew of large high quality oil discoveries in Guyana’s offshore Stabroek Block has reignited interest in the Guyana-Suriname Basin’s oil potential. Suriname, which shares the basin estimated to hold up to 32.6 billion barrels of oil resources, is desperately seeking to replicate Guyana’s success after the COVID-19 pandemic hit its economy and government finances particularly hard. According to the International Monetary Fund, Suriname’s gross domestic product contracted by a massive 13.5% during 2020, the worst performance in South America after excluding Venezuela. The fallout from the pandemic is putting considerable pressure on an already cash strapped national government in Paramaribo. There are growing concerns that the deeply impoverished South American nation, which only late last year emerged […]