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Guyana-Suriname Basin the “Holy Grail” of oil and gas – Senior UWI Fellow
Kaieteur News- Professor Emeritus / Senior Fellow of International Relations at the University of the West Indies, Anthony Bryan, has dubbed the Guyana-Suriname Basin (GSB) the “Holy Grail” of new oil province discoveries.
Bryan, in a March 1, 2021 piece, highlighted that oil experts predict that during 2021, there will be a major increase in offshore drilling activity in the Southern Caribbean and Northern South America. Guyana will lead these drilling actions, the Professor noted, and referenced this to recent global increases in the price of crude, and the fact that oil and gas companies are searching for discoveries that can be quickly monetized for higher and faster returns.
Bryan reminded that ExxonMobil has found approximately nine billion barrels of oil equivalent resources offshore Guyana since 2015 and had its first oil lift in December 201
Senior Fellow at the University of the West Indies, Anthony Byran
9. He then wrote that it is expected that during 2021 the company will expand its exploration in the Canje Block and prepare for drilling in the Payara project in the Stabroek Block.
Turning to Suriname, Byran reminded that this Dutch-speaking country had also hit pay dirt following its Block 52 discovery in 2020, with deepwater exploration set for 2022.
“The oil in the Guyana Suriname Basin” Byran wrote, “is the fluid substance that motivates Trinidad, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname to further explore and drill. I
t is now the Holy Grail for abundant fossil fuels. They all want a piece of the action, and actions speak louder than words.”
Further to this, Bryan indicated in this piece that, that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago is approaching the responsible global maritime jurisdiction bodies for approval to push its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to the borders of the GSB. To this he added, “Suriname, although it is part of the GSB, intends to move its offshore exploration closer to the lucrative Stabroek fields of Guyana. Venezuela not to be outdone, last year ordered the Venezuelan Navy to re-define the nation’s maritime boundaries and its EEZ.”
The Professor indicated that one of the major challenges to the lucrative industry is the common thread will be climate change. He further said that the challenge for finding more fossil fuels lie in global environmental opposition to big projects as in the GSB; the growing competitiveness of alternatives like wind and solar power that are often the cheapest sources of new electricity generation; and a major employer in many countries.
But the Professor emphasized that “Oil and gas will be around for several decades” and that “It should be an interesting 2020s. The devil is in the details. But the business of oil and gas extraction should continue apace until it’s no longer profitable or feasible to so do. Our four countries and the International Oil Companies interested in the cutting-edge GSB will demand as much.”
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