Suriname

Snapshot: Kosmos Energy Explores New Basin Potential in Suriname

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 14.Sep.2018) — Kosmos Energy continues to explore new basin potential outside of Africa.

In December 2011, Kosmos secured a position offshore Suriname, marking the company’s first portfolio expansion beyond Africa.

In Suriname, located in the north-eastern portion of South America, Kosmos participates in two blocks: Block 42 and Block 45

“The extension of the emerging oil petroleum system recently opened in Guyana, provides up to five independent plays and multi-billion barrel potential,” announced Kosmos in an investor presentation on its website.

Drilling was to have commenced in the second quarter of 2018, according to the company.

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Kosmos to Spud Pontoenoe Prospect Offshore Suriname

(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 10.Aug.2018 – Kosmos Energy Ltd. expects to commence drilling operations on the Pontoenoe-1 well in mid-August.

Pontoenoe is the first of up to three independent prospects in Block 42 offshore Suriname and is a similar play type to the Turbot and Longtail discoveries located approximately 70 kilometers to the west in Guyana, reported Kosmos in an official statement on its website.

Kosmos has one remaining test this year offshore Suriname.

“We expect to spud the Pontoenoe prospect in Block 42 in mid-August,” said Kosmos Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Andrew G. Inglis.

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FDI in LAC Region Falls for Third Straight Year

(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 12.Jul.2018) – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Latin America and the Caribbean fell for a third straight year in 2017, reported the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean or CEPAL by its Spanish acronym.

The details were revealed in CEPAL’s annual report titled “FDI in Latin America and the Caribbean 2018.”

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Trinidad, Guyana and Suriname: Challenges

(AIPN, 27.Jun.2018) – Petroleum consultants and other energy sector experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities in Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Suriname during a discussion in London.

The select group will consist of Kevin Ramnarine, former Trinidad & Tobago Energy Minister (2014-15); Energy Strategic Advisor and Lecturer Carlos Bellorin, Principal Consultant, IHS Markit; Lecturer, Queen Mary University and SciencesPo Ekpen Omondude, former Senior Economic Adviser, The Commonwealth Secretariat (2008-2018); Director, Bargate Advisory Limited.

DISCUSSION BRIEF

With the discovery of Liza-1 within the Stabroek Block by ExxonMobil and its partners in 2015 – and after years of frustrating exploratory results – all eyes have been on the Southern Caribbean. After Liza-1 and the seven discoveries that followed (including Longtail-1 announced on 20 June 2018), the Guyana-Suriname Basin has all but confirmed its massive potential. On neighbouring sides of Guyana, the E&P outlook has also changed after 2015.

To the east in Trinidad & Tobago – one of the more mature producers in the region – successive governments have tried to bring the island’s hydrocarbons industry to the attention of investors with limited success. Without any significant recent discoveries, Trinidad & Tobago will need to improve its performance and hydrocarbons regime. This will be necessary to replace reserves and increase production if it is to maintain its gas-linked economy and leadership as a gas producer.

To the west lies Suriname. After recent wells have come up dry, it needs (at least) a commercial discovery to finally confirm its long-coveted potential. Venezuela also plays a pivotal role in regards these two, smaller, nations: an embattled Venezuela is currently engaged in a high-profile boundary dispute with Guyana and could enter into a strategic partnership with Trinidad & Tobago over two key gas fields.

During this session, we will touch on the most critical issues from these three countries, including comments on their legal-fiscal regimes and political risk while looking forward to their challenges and opportunities. We will offer an on-the-ground view of one the hottest new deepwater provinces in the world.

WHEN: Thursday, June 28, 2018 (5pm – 8:30pm Europe/London)
COORDINATOR: Akin Gump
VENUE: Bishops Square
WHERE: London E1 6EG United Kingdom

Registration will be from 5:00 – 5:30 p.m., followed by the presentations and Q&A until 7:00 p.m. A networking reception with drinks and canapes will follow from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.

Online registration has been closed. On-site registration will be on a space available basis and is complimentary for all members and non-members. If you have any questions, please contact Carlos Bellorin at Carlos.Bellorin@ihsmarkit.com

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India to Provide $51 Mln Development Aid to Suriname

(PTI, 21.Jun.2018) – India will also extend a Line of Credit of USD 27.5 million to support a power transmission project in PikinSaronarea and another Line of Credit of USD 3.5 million for maintenance of Chetak helicopters.

Paramaribo: India will extend a Line of Credit of USD 31 million and a concessional financing of USD 20 million to Suriname as the two countries agreed to strengthen their economic relations and development partnership after President Kovind held talks with his Surinamese counterpart Desire Delano Bouterse.

President Kovind, who is on a three-day visit to the Latin American country, announced that India will extend concessional financing of USD 20 million for setting up a solar project to provide clean energy to a cluster of 49 villages in Suriname.

India will also extend a Line of Credit of USD 27.5 million to support a power transmission project in PikinSaronarea and another Line of Credit of USD 3.5 million for maintenance of Chetak helicopters.

The president also received the Ratification Instrument of Suriname joining the International Solar Alliance from Bouterse.

India also agreed to assist Suriname to establish a Centre of Excellence in information technology. An MoU to take forward this project was signed.

Besides, the two sides also concluded four MoUs in the fields of elections, diplomatic academies partnership, employment for spouse of diplomats of the two countries and archives.

Suriname invited Indian investment in areas such as agriculture, mining, energy and timber.

During the talks, Suriname accepted India’s invitation to attend the 11th World Hindi Conference to be held in Mauritius in August 2018 as well as the Business Conclave to be held between India and CARICOM in Trinidad and Tobago soon.

Addressing the National Assembly of Suriname, Kovind, who arrived here on June 19 on the second leg of his three-nation tour to Greece, Suriname and Cuba, said development cooperation, under the rubric South-South cooperation, is an important pillar of Indo-Surinamese relations.

Kovind was the first foreign Head of State to address the National Assembly of Suriname. In 1988, then Vice-President of India Shankar Dayal Sharma had addressed the House.

“Paramaribo and New Delhi are almost 14,000 km apart. Yet, despite this trans-oceanic gap, our countries have much in common. Both Suriname and India are multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic democracies,” he said.

Speaking on the climate change, he said, “This is an international concern, a foreign policy issue – and yet, for the people of Suriname it is a deeply-felt existential challenge. I must commend your country for its enlightened approach on climate change. You have shown a determination that even much larger and wealthier nations have shied away from.”

Kovind said India has extended financial grants for a craft market project and a digital literacy programme.

“We hope our assistance will help in promoting economic sustainability and capacity building of women and children in Suriname,” he said.

He said India wants to strengthen our capacity building partnership with Suriname through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme as well.

“We have, therefore, offered to raise the annual scholarships to Suriname under the programme from 40 to 50,” he said.

Kovind said that President Bouterse has expressed Suriname’s continued support for India’s aspiration to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“We also expressed our deepest concern on the threat posed by terrorism and conveyed strong support to each other to fight the global menace,” he said.

India and Suriname also agreed to enhance cooperation to promote Ayurveda and other traditional medicinal systems of both countries.

Suriname has been celebrating 145 years of arrival of Indian diaspora to the country and Kovind’s visit coincided with the celebration.

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Regional Deepwater Industry in Southern Caribbean

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 7.Jun.2018) – Kevin Ramnarine discusses the regional deep-water industry in the southern Caribbean during a technical speech in Trinidad on the emerging regional deep-water province of Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, which was hosted by the Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago and streamed live.

Ramnarine Talks About Southern Caribbean Deepwater Industry

(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 31.May.2018) – Former Trinidad and Tobago Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine will speak in Port of Spain about the regional deepwater industry in the Southern Caribbean.

An abstract from his technical talk about the regional deepwater industry in the Southern Caribbean, and the case of Guyana, Suriname & Trinidad and Tobago, follows:

“The 2015 discovery by ExxonMobil of oil in Guyana’s Stabroek Block, the discovery of natural gas by BHP Billiton in Trinidad and Tobago’s Block TTDAA 5 in 2017 and ongoing exploration in both countries and in Suriname have set the stage for a major deepwater oil industry in the Southern Caribbean which could potentially extend to Barbados. Such an industry will have a transformative effect on the practice of geoscience and all aspects of petroleum engineering. In addition, deepwater oil and natural gas commercialization require different skills and technologies different to what obtains on the shallow and average depth waters of continental shelf.”

For more details contact The Geological Society of Trinidad & Tobago at thegstt@gmail.com
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Chevron, Hess, Kosmos Finalizing 1st Prospect Test in Suriname

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 30.May.2018) ‐- Kosmos Energy, Chevron Corporation and Hess Corporation are close to finalizing prospects tests in Block 42 in Suriname.

The three companies are finalizing the first of up to three independent tests of prospects in Block 42, announced Kosmos in an official statement last week. This includes the Pontoenoe prospect, which is similar to and along trend from discoveries in Guyana. Kosmos expects drilling to commence in the third quarter of 2018.

Kosmos holds rights in the Block 42 contract area under production sharing contracts with Suriname government’s Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V. Kosmos, the exploration operator of Block 42, holds a 33.33% interest in the block along partners Chevron and Hess, whom each hold a 33.33% interest in the block.
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Energy, Education, and Learning Through NRG ED

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 24.May.2018) – Energy Analytics Institute, formerly LatinPetroleum Inc., continues to promote its “Energy Education Initiative” in the Americas, also known as “NRG ED.”

NRG ED is structured to work with K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, workforce training programs, communities and businesses, and aims to promote reduction of non-renewable energy usage in favor of renewable energies. However, the core of the initiative is education, without which the NRG ED initiative would not be.

“At its core the initiative is really focused on education,” said Chad Archey, Editor-in-Chief at Energy Analytics Institute from Atlanta, Georgia.

EAI views basic education as most important in the overall learning process and also promotes educational initiatives and research from grade school to the professional level related to the energy sector. EAI aims to foment constructive dialogue regarding energy usage as well as ways to reduce the carbon footprint left by non-renewable energy resources through the following: 1) educational consultancy, 2) development and distribution of educational and training materials, and 3) promotion of debate and discussion regarding renewable energy alternatives.

Energy Analytics Institute (EAI), formerly LatinPetroleum Inc. (dba LatinPetroleum.com), is a Houston-based independent company focused on producing non-biased news, updates and special reports for investors interested in the Latin America and Caribbean petroleum sectors.
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ECLAC Ssays Venezuela’s Economic Activity to Fall 8.5% in 2018

(Energy Analytics Institute, Aaron Simonsky, 1.May.2018) – The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as ECLAC or CEPAL by its Spanish acronym, projects economic activity in troubled Venezuela will contract 8.5% in 2018.

Gross domestic product or (GDP) estimates for other important countries and regions follows:

TABLE 1: ECLAC GDP ESTIMATES FOR 2018

Country/Region —————————- GDP (Est.)

Argentina ———————————— 2.5%
Bolivia ————————————— 4.0%
Brazil —————————————- 2.2%
Chile —————————————– 3.3%
Colombia ———————————— 2.6%
Ecuador ————————————– 2.0%
Paraguay ————————————- 4.0%
Uruguay ————————————– 3.0%
Venezuela ———————————– (8.5%)

Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) —- 2.2%
South America —————————— 2.0%
Central America and Mexico ————- 2.6%
Central America —————————- 3.6%
Latin America ——————————- 2.2%
Caribbean ———————————— 1.4%

Source: ECLAC, April 2018
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Guyana Basin Exploration to Ramp: Wood Mackenzie Says

(Energy Analytics Institute, Ian Silverman, 28.Feb.2018) – The Liza discovery was the largest oil discovery in 2015 and has significantly de-risked the Cretaceous Tertiary play, proving the existence of a working petroleum system in this portion of the basin, according to a “Guyana exploration basin” asset report summary published by Wood Mackenzie on its website.

The firm went on to say, “We expect exploration in this basin to ramp as the potential for material discoveries and material value creation is favourably high. The Guyana Basin is predominantly an offshore basin, stretching across the waters of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. The basin shares many similarities with emerging hydrocarbon plays on the Atlantic Margin of West Africa, including offshore Ghana, where the giant Jubilee discovery was made.
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CGX Announces Resignation of its Chief Executive Officer

(CGX, 10.Jan.2018) – CGX Energy accepted Mr. Dewi Jones’ resignation as Chief Executive Officer of the company, effective January 8, 2018.

“The xompany would like to thank Mr. Jones for his contribution over the years and wish him success in his future endeavours,” said Professor Suresh Narine, Chairman and Executive Director (Guyana).

Professor Narine will act in the capacity of Executive Chairman of the company for the foreseeable future.
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The Caribbean Poised To Become Major Oil Region

(OilPrice.com, Haley Zaremba, 22.Aug.2017) – In the future, we may be hearing about the Caribbean a whole lot more when talking about oil and gas. Previously, the area was virtually off the map for the fossil fuels industry, despite its proximity to the vast oil reserves of Venezuela. Now, the Caribbean has suddenly become a point of interest since ExxonMobil discovered major reservoirs in nearby Guyana in 2015.

After their initial huge discovery of the Liza oil field 2 years ago, Exxonmobil also announced last month that they’ve discovered more oil in the Payara reservoir off the coast of Guyana, increasing the total discovery to approximately 500 million barrels. This is huge news for both Exxonmobil and for Guyana, which ranks among the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

ExxonMobil (partnered with Hess Corp. and Statoil) has also recently purchased a new deepwater block for exploration off the coast of neighboring Suriname, another potentially oil-filled nation. Some in the industry are already referring to the Guyana-Suriname Basin as the next big oil region.

Now, those good fortunes could be spreading to the Caribbean as well. Trinidad and Tobago has long been the Caribbean’s largest oil and gas producer. The nation has depended economically on their petroleum reserves since the 1990s, with the energy sector currently comprising 34.9 percent of the country’s GDP. However, more recently the small island-nation’s production has been in decline as production from mature fields has waned and exploration for new fields has been slow in starting. Now, Trinidad and Tobago is hoping that the discoveries in nearby Guyana will bring more interest and investment to the Caribbean.

It’s looking like Trinidad and Tobago will get their wish. Just this month BP Trinidad and Tobago announced two major discoveries totaling approximately two trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, which the company’s president called “the start of a rejuvenated exploration program on the Trinidad shelf”.

Similarly encouraged by the massive discoveries in Guyana over the last few years and the foreign interest it has garnered, several other Caribbean nations are beginning to assert themselves as potentially oil-rich countries and attempting to woo foreign companies to start investing in exploration around their islands. One of the biggest examples of this is Jamaica, who have recently caught the attention of UK-based Tullow Oil.

Last week Tullow announced plans to return to offshore locations off the southern coast of Jamaica to explore a field of “live oil” that was brought to their attention by local fisherman earlier this year. The firm will ramp up their 3D seismic surveys this year in hopes that the floating oil will lead them to vast oil fields the likes of their neighbors to the south and the nearby Gulf of Mexico.

The Bahamas has also recently publicized their plans to invite international companies to drill in deep waters off the coast, pointing not only to Guyana and the Gulf, but also to neighboring Cuba’s oil reserves as an indication of what treasures may be laying under the surface of the sparkling Caribbean Sea.

Exploration of oil reserves in the Caribbean may also soon be ramped up and revolutionized by major technological advancements from Ursa Space Systems. The high-tech company has announced a planned expansion to take a global oil inventory, with the Caribbean as one of its first major surveyed regions. Ursa will use satellite imagery to provide reliable and independent weekly inventories of oil stocks down to the tank level for easy calculations and better insight on oil supply and demand, especially in areas of the world where there has previously not been readily-available data.

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ExxonMobil Acquires Interest in Acreage Offshore Suriname

(Exxon Mobil, 13.Jul.2017) – Exxon Mobil Corporation announced that its subsidiary ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Suriname B.V., along with co-venturers Hess and Statoil, signed a production sharing contract for Block 59 with Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V., the national oil company of Suriname. The block adds significant acreage to ExxonMobil’s operated portfolio in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.

Deepwater Block 59 is in water depths ranging from nearly 2,000 meters to 3,600 meters, located approximately 190 miles (305 kilometers) offshore Suriname’s capital city, Paramaribo. The block is 2.8 million acres, or 4,430 square miles, and shares a maritime border with Guyana, where ExxonMobil is the operator of three offshore blocks, including the world-class Liza field discovered by ExxonMobil in 2015.

“We look forward to working with Staatsolie and our co-venturers to evaluate the potential of this new acreage,” said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company. “Adding this block enhances our leading global deepwater portfolio.”

Suriname represents a new country for ExxonMobil’s upstream business. The company has investments throughout South America. Following contract signing, the co-venturers are preparing to begin exploration activities, including acquisition and analysis of seismic data.

ExxonMobil and consortium partners Hess and Statoil each hold a third of the interest in the block. ExxonMobil is the operator.
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