Fifth oil discovery off the coast of Suriname

As of January 14, Suriname officially has 5 oil wells at sea. Total and Apache Corporation have made a fourth significant oil and gas discovery at the Keskesi East1 well, in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname. This follows previous discoveries at Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi. “We are very enthusiastic in response to this news,” said Suriname’s State Oil Company (Staatsolie). “God has blessed Suriname,” said Surinamese legislators on

Thursday.

The well was drilled by a water depth of about 725 meters and encountered a total of 63 meters net pay of hydrocarbons, comprised of 58 meters net black oil, volatile oil, and gas pay in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs, along with 5 meters of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs, where wireline logging has just been performed. Drilling is still ongoing for deeper Neocomian aged targets.

“We are delighted to announce this new discovery, which confirms this first exploration campaign as a full success and adds to the proven resource base” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President Exploration at Total. “We are also excited, as new operator of the block, to start the appraisal operations designed to characterize the 2020 discoveries, while in parallel start a second exploration campaign on this prolific block in 2021.” Total assumed operatorship of Block 58 on January 1st, 2021, with a 50% working interest. Upon completion of the operations on Keskesi East-1, the Noble Sam Croft drillship will be released. Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas in December 2020 made its first offshore discovery offshore Suriname. The company, as the operator of Block 52, said the hydrocarbon discovery had been made while drilling the Sloanea-1 exploration well in the offshore block.