Staatsolie signs offshore production sharing contracts with PetroChina

Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V. (Staatsolie) and PetroChina Investment Suriname B.V. (PetroChina), a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, signed production sharing contracts for offshore blocks 14 and 15 on Friday 13 September 2024.

By signing the production sharing contracts, PetroChina has obtained exploration, development and production rights in Block 14 and Block 15. Staatsolie has a thirty percent participation interest through its subsidiary Paradise Oil Company N.V. (POC).

The contracts were signed by Annand Jagesar, Staatsolie’s Managing Director, Yu Zhang, representative of China National Petroleum Corporation, and Rekha Bissumbhar, POC Director. POC and PetroChina will also sign a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA). The JOA sets out the agreements between the contract parties regarding the exploration, development and production of oil and gas, and the distribution of the costs, risks and revenues of the project.

Block 14 and Block 15 were part of the Suriname Shallow Offshore 2 Bid Round 2023-2024. PetroChina was one of the companies that submitted a bid and was awarded these blocks. The blocks are in the eastern part of the Suriname-Guyana basin and border Block 52, where oil and gas discoveries have previously been made. Block 14 has water depths of 50 to 75 meters and Block 15 from 75 to 150 meters.

Staatsolie, via POC, also has participation interests in blocks 5, 6, 7 and 8, which were part of the Shallow Offshore Bid Round 2020-2021. Exploration activities in these blocks are ongoing. Recent studies show that the geology of the Shallow Offshore looks promising.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is an integrated international energy company with operations in China and the rest of the world. CNPC is one of the world's largest oil companies.

With the two newly concluded production sharing contracts, approximately 46 percent of the Surinamese offshore area is now under contract. Staatsolie's strategy is to have as much of the offshore as possible under contract with international parties. Staatsolie invests in studying all data from all blocks in the Surinamese part of the Guyana-Suriname basin, which allows it to become the 'Master of the basin'. This means that Staatsolie is increasingly and better able to convert data into usable information. In this way, a better understanding of the geology and the mapping of potential areas is obtained. The better Staatsolie can do this, the more successful offshore bid rounds will be and the greater the chance of finding hydrocarbons.