Suriname presses Exxon, TotalEnergies to combine gas developments

investing.com:

By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) — Suriname's state-owned oil company Staatsolie has begun talks with oil majors Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and TotalEnergies (EPA:TTEF) to encourage joint development of natural gas fields that straddle its and Guyana's maritime borders, the head of its state oil firm told Reuters late Tuesday.

The early-stage discussions are part of Suriname's efforts to increase foreign investment in its energy production and turn the South American nation into a regional gas hub. Its first major oil production from offshore is about four years away.

To Suriname's west, an Exxon-led consortium in Guyana has quickly ramped oil output to about 650,000 barrels per day (bpd). The group is in discussions with the Guyanese government to develop as-yet untapped gas fields. Guyana has said it wants the group to tap the fields for domestic supply and exports, and generate a second stream of energy revenue for the country.

The Exxon consortium has outlined six projects in Guyana, where it has confirmed more than 11 billion barrels of recoverable resources, mainly for production of more lucrative crude oil. A seventh project could be the group's first to mainly focus on gas.

Two of Exxon's discoveries in Guyana, which contain mostly natural gas and gas condensate, are near two Suriname fields where TotalEnergies and APA Corp found gas, Staatsolie Managing Director Annand Jagesar said in an interview at the CERAWEeek energy conference in Houston.

«We've been talking to Total . They don't see an opportunity to make a feasible project as of yet from Maka and Kwaskwasi (two discoveries off its coast). Joining the Guyana and Suriname explorations, our projects, we can make that scale», Jagesar said.

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