The latest global oil shock has created an ideal environment for Suriname’s struggling oil boom. The impoverished South American country of less than seven hundred thousand is endeavoring to launch a transformative oil boom. Poor drilling results, a high gas-to-oil ratio, and conflicting seismic data saw Suriname’s oil boom put on hold during 2022. There are, however, obvious signs that the development of offshore Block 58 is back on track. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, will drive higher investment in oil-producing countries that do not require access to that body of water to ship their petroleum to export markets.
Suriname’s long quest to ignite an oil boom on the scale of neighboring Guyana began in 2020 with the Maka-1 discovery in the 1.4-million-acre Block 58. This was followed by four further major discoveries in the oil acreage, giving Suriname’s government, in the capital Paramaribo, hope of an economically transformative oil boom emerging. The prospect of such an event occurring was bolstered by neighboring Guyana, where an epic offshore oil boom, centered on the prolific Stabroek Block, has transformed the once poverty-stricken nation.
Since production began in 2019, Guyana’s gross domestic product has grown fivefold to over $25 billion for 2025. The tiny former British colony is now the wealthiest country by GDP per capita in South America and the 10th richest globally. Suriname shares the offshore Guyana Suriname oil basin, which is turning into a prolific drilling location, with Guyana. Discoveries to date are estimated to contain more petroleum than the U.S. Geological Survey projected in the government department’s last assessment of the oil-bearing region.
The Stabroek Block alone is estimated to contain at least 11 billion barrels of crude oil. Importantly, this proven prolific oil acreage is contiguous to Suriname’s offshore Block 58, which analysts estimate could contain as much as 6 billion barrels of petroleum. The oil-rich fairway running through the Stabroek Block extends into Block 58, and TotalEnergies discoveries in that acreage attest to that assertion.
Source: APA Corporation Fourth Quarter & Full Year 2022 Financial & Operational Supplement.
In the latest positive development for Suriname’s burgeoning oil boom, TotalEnergies Suriname general manager Artur Nunes de Silvar recently announced the 220,000-barrel-per-day Gran Morgu development was 50% complete. The completion of this facility is crucial to launching Suriname’s oil boom. Gran Morgu, located roughly 93 miles or 150 kilometers off the coast of Suriname, is a project developing the Sapakara and Krabdagu oilfields in Block 58, which contain an estimated 760 million barrels.
