Third Suriname Find for Petronas, Exxon Could Support 100,000 bbl/d FPSO

Petronas Suriname E&P B.V., a subsidiary of Malaysia’s state company Petronas, and Exxon Mobil Corp.’s recent deepwater find at the Fusaea-1 well offshore Suriname in Block 52 could underpin a 100,000 bbl/d FPSO development, according to Wood Mackenzie.

The well was spud in February 2024 and successfully drilled to a total depth of 5,227 m, encountering several oil and gas-bearing Campanian sandstone reservoir packages, Petronas said May 16 in a press release. The Fusaea-1 exploration well is located about 170 km offshore Suriname and 9 km east from the Roystonea-1 find, Petronas said.

This is the third hydrocarbon discovery in Block 52. Further evaluation is being undertaken to determine the full extent of this discovery and its potential for an integrated development with the recent Roystonea-1 and Sloanea-1 discoveries, Petronas said.

“We understand Roystonea and Fusaea's recoverable resources are approaching 400 million barrels,” said Mark Oberstoetter, Wood Mackenzie’s head of Americas (non-L48) upstream, in a May 16 research report. The discovery’s resource base would support such a development, he said.

Since 2019, nine deepwater fields offshore Suriname have been discovered, but the country is still waiting for its first sanctioned development, Wood Mackenzie said in the report.

“Gas resources there of 2 Tcf could anchor a floating LNG development in the early 2030s. Also, the Fusaea well had more associated gas than expected and could add resources to support future gas development,” Luiz Hayum, Wood Mackenzie principal upstream research analyst of Latin America upstream, said in the report.

Block 52 covers a 4,749 sq km area and is located north of the coast of Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city, within the prospective Suriname-Guyana basin. Petronas Suriname E&P operates Block 52 with a 50% interest together with Exxon Mobil (50%).

In addition to Block 52, Petronas Suriname E&P operates Block 48 and Block 63 with a 100% interest and a 30% non-operating interest in Block 64.

Wood Mackenzie now estimates Suriname's discovered resources at more than 2.4 Bbbl of oil and liquids and over 12.5 Tcf of gas.

This resource base has attracted the attention of Trinidad and Tobago, which has already expressed interest in tapping into Suriname’s gas to feed its massive Atlantic LNG facility, Stuart Young, the energy minister of the twin-island nation, recently told Hart Energy.

On the adjacent Block 58, just west of Block 52, TotalEnergies and APA Corp. expect to take a final investment decision of around $9 billion sometime in late 2024 for a cluster of FPSO development there. Guyana’s Stabroek Block, where an Exxon Mobil-led consortium has found estimated gross recoverable resources of over 11 Bboe, is located just across Suriname’s maritime border.