By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Although still interested in finalising the so-called PetroCaribe oil agreement with Venezuela, the Suriname government isn’t ready yet to sign up, authorities here have confirmed.
According to energy minister Gregory Rusland, the financial priorities of the government currently lie elsewhere. Also the government is very cautious in signing an agreement with Caracas that in the end could be harmful to Suriname’s own oil industry. Through favourable long term pay back agreements, CARICOM member states can purchase fuel and oil products from Venezuela.
In an invited comment, Rusland revealed that the government is not at the moment in a position to provide for a state guarantee to seal the PetroCaribe deal with Venezuela. “It (the PetroCaribe deal) will be a loan that we have to pay back and Venezuela wants a guarantee that in the end they will get their money back,” said Rusland.
Since, on basis of the agreement, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA-Caribe will get access to the Surinamese oil market for their products, this could be detrimental for Suriname’s oil company Staatsolie, the official further argued.
Several other CARICOM nations that also signed agreements with Venezuela are, according to the minister, in a different position, since these countries don’t have their own oil industry.
“That’s why finalising the agreement is taking a little longer, but we are still interested in this deal,” Rusland said, adding that he will table this issue when he participates next week in the First South American Energy Summit to be held from April 16-17 in the Island of Margarita, eastern Venezuela.
Meanwhile, international oil producer Repsol-YPF is completing preparations for offshore drilling off the Surinamese coast. In 2004 Repsol-YPF signed a production sharing contract with Suriname’s state-owned Staatsolie for oil exploration and production in Block 30, one hundred kilometers offshore in the Guyana-Suriname basin, with a surface area of approximately 18,600 square kilometres.
Evaluation of 2D and 3D seismic data of the Block 30 has shown positive indications for lucrative oil production, Rusland disclosed. “This however this doesn’t automatically means that there is oil. To determine that, you have to drill,” he said. “The prospects are good and in February 2008 the company is ready to perform the first drilling,” he added.
According to the US Geological Survey, the Guyana-Suriname basin may hold one of the largest untapped oil and gas resources in the world. |
