I was lucky enough to attend the Suriname Energy, Oil and Gas Summit (SEOGs) in Paramaribo in June. This is some of what I learnt.
Focus on the people of Suriname
When Her Excellency Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, President of Suriname, opened SEOGs, she started by addressing “my students”. She spoke in Dutch, so I couldn’t understand what she said, but the tone was unmistakable: the development of Suriname’s oil resources must first and foremost benefit the Citizens of Suriname1.
So I will start this paper with a clear message that, yes Arche aims to build a business in Suriname, but as we do so, we will do it in a way that benefits the Citizens of Suriname.
Today
Suriname has for many years been energy self-sufficient due to its onshore Saramacca oil fields, its 17,000bpd refinery and its existing 180MW Afobaka hydro-electric facility.
Suriname is also recognised as one of the world’s few carbon neutral countries due to its 92% forest coverage.
Afobaka serves the Paramaribo grid and is supported by two heavy fuel oil (HFO) fuelled reciprocating power plants:
- 97MW Tout Lui Faut owned and operated by Staatsolie,
- 135MW EBS Saramaccastraat Plant.
This means that the Paramaribo grid’s generation capacity is in the order of 412MW. When spinning reserve, frequency control and allowances for routine maintenance are taken into account, the reliable, dispatchable generation is in the order of 300MW. Peak demand for 2027 is forecast to exceed 300MW2.
A shifting economy requires more power
In 2019, Apache Corporation (now APA Corporation3) and Total (now Total Energies) commenced drilling in Block 58, an offshore lease located approximately 150km offshore. Between 2020 and 2022 the consortium announced major discoveries leading to the commencement of the GranMorgu Project. The GranMorgu (Block 58) Project, is expected to start production around 2028 and is projected to produce roughly 220,000bpd of liquids utilising the world’s first all-electric FPSO and with zero routine flaring. Gas will be reinjected into the field (at least in the short term).
Meanwhile Petronas has reported eight successful wells in Suriname and estimated it has unlocked more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable resources. I understand that Petronas is targeting FID in late 2026.
Whilst the bulk of the action will be offshore, Paramaribo is becoming a vital support base for the offshore industry with port expansions, logistic hubs, commercial buildings and, of course, additional energy consumption that comes from higher economic means.
There is a short-term requirement for additional generation capacity. This does not necessarily mean more HFO fired reciprocating engines, it might mean:
- Solar PV, which correlates well with air-conditioning demand,
- Large-scale BESS to time-shift energy into the peak,
- Utilisation of flare gas from the refinery in a reciprocating engine or a small gas turbine, or
- A combination of the above.
Gas means opportunity
Zero routine flaring means that there will be an abundance of gas available at the offshore fields. This gas could come to shore (gas to shore) for beneficial use.
If the gas is not otherwise available to the offshore market (through LNG), then the gas will be by-product priced and likely to be reasonably low cost (subject to the capital cost of the Gas to Shore project).
This opens the door to combined cycle power plant providing lower cost and lower carbon intensity power to the Paramaribo Grid compared to HFO. If the cost of gas and/or power is low enough, then the door is open to minerals processing (Suriname once had and aluminium smelter), fertiliser production and other energy intensive industries.
Opportunities for investment
The Suriname Government is calling for expressions of interest from credible offshore explores for exploration of additional blocks withing Suriname’s exclusive economic zone. If offshore exploration is your organisation’s game and you meet Suriname’s credibility criteria (Woodside maybe), then maybe Suriname is for you.
Utilisation of gas is an opportunity. One is competing with:
- Do nothing case – reinject into the well, or
- Floating LNG production.
However, I suspect that the Suriname Government will look more favourably on Gas to Shore projects due to the greater level of economic benefits that lower cost and abundant gas and power will bring to the country. Therefore, there are probably power, fertiliser and minerals processing projects that make sense if Gas to Shore4 can be achieved.
Shorter term I see opportunity for a BESS and/or solar farm (and perhaps a gas-powered plant at the refinery) to address short-term peak demand.
Arche in Suriname
Arche has chosen Suriname as one of two countries (Chile being the second) that we are commencing operations in.
Arche in Suriname for the benefit of citizens of Suriname
In the short term, we will operate with our engineering partner based in Suriname as we build our pipeline and our team.
Our recruitment strategy will be focused on junior and graduate engineers who are citizens of Suriname (possibly educated, or living in, the Netherlands) who will benefit from mentoring and training from Arche’s existing, Senior Engineers based in Australia.
We will develop these junior engineers using the Engineers Australia process and aim to have them registered on the Australian National Professional Engineers Register (NPER) and as Registered Professional Engineers of Queensland (RPEQ), this will provide our Suriname based engineers with international recognition under the Australian (and Queensland) system, opening more opportunities for them.
Capability
It is early days for us; however, working with our local partners we are currently able to offer the full range of services that we provide in Australia, including:
- Energy and carbon strategy
- Infrastructure strategy
- Project development
- Owners Engineering
- Project Management
- Engineering and engineering management
We offer these services on any energy or heavy infrastructure projects. We have also developed a relationship with a credible EPC provider capable of delivering medium sized projects such as BESS projects, solar farms and gas-fired power station.
Contact Arche today
If you are operating in Suriname and need Arche’s support, we stand ready.
If you are an Australian company seeking to invest in Suriname, we (and our partners) would love to collaborate with you.
If you are a clever engineer or engineering student, a citizen of Suriname, and are interested in joining the Arche team, please drop me your CV.