By Vijay Jayaraj
“Equatorial Guyana and Suriname have combined oil reserves estimated to be 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The biggest hurdle to the extraction of these reserves could come from lack of capital … if the international climate-industrial complex takes a strong stand against their extraction plans and their own governments acquiesce.”
The poverty-stricken Caribbean countries of Guyana and Suriname have hit the jackpot with the discovery of huge offshore oil reserves that are on track to produce revenue for decades.
Opposition from the United Nations and other anti-hydrocarbon entities might hamper the pace of production but won’t stop it. The global need for more crude is too great, and the economic situation of the two South American nations is too dire.
Suriname has been experiencing double-digit inflation for a while now (35 percent in 2020). The inflation rate is now above 50 percent due to the ongoing global energy crunch. Suriname’s economy shrank by 3.5% in 2021. Guyana’s economy is in a similar situation, with 40 percent of Guyana’s 800,000 living in poverty.
All this could change now, thanks to the oil discovery.
Equatorial Guyana and Suriname—situated side-by-side and bounded by the equator and Atlantic Ocean — have combined oil reserves estimated to be 17 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Together this represents the world’s largest oil discovery in the last two decades. Some call it the “the most promising oil discovery hotspot on earth.” Others say it is “the most exciting oil frontier on earth.” In addition, there are gas reserves of more than 30 trillion cubic feet.
According to a Hess Corporation report, the biggest Guyanese oil block—the Stabroek—“is operated by ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana” with a 45 percent stake while Hess Guyana Exploration and CNOOC Petroleum Guyana hold 30 and 25 percent stakes, respectively. Guyana will deliver 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2027.
In Suriname, TotalEnergies and its partner Apache made discoveries of large oil reserves in what is known as the Block 58 offshore site. Block 58 is “situated on the same petroleum fairway which runs through Guyana’s Stabroek Block.”
Around 2035, the output from Guyana is expected to be around 1.4 bpd and that from Suriname 650,000 bpd, which would put them in the top five oil-producing countries in South America.
Still, analysts believe that output from Guyana could be much higher: “there is every indication, based on the latest developments, that output will be far higher by” 2027. “Government officials in Georgetown [Guyana’s capital] believe crude oil production could reach 1.5 million barrels per day, or more, from as many as 12 Floating Production Storage and Offloading facilities in five years.”
The biggest hurdle to the extraction of these reserves could come from lack of capital. Both Suriname and Guyana have an “underdeveloped capital market with limited financing options” for new projects. These nations will be under severe financial stress if the international climate-industrial complex takes a strong stand against their extraction plans and their own governments acquiesce.
But awareness of this is increasing among leaders who are rushing to cut red tape for foreign investment. Last week, Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali promised that his “government will remove bureaucratic hurdles to smooth the journey for Saudis looking to invest in his country.”
Common sense suggests that the global markets will dictate the development of oil fields in these countries. With a continuing rise in demand for oil forecast by the International Energy Agency, one would expect crude from Guyana and Suriname to sell fast.
This will prove to be a win-win for global supply and the development of local economies. “Suriname’s nascent oil boom is gaining momentum” and will deliver a “significant fiscal and economic windfall,” says Matthew Smith at Oilprice.com,
“Guyana will materialize as a leading global oil exporter with its petroleum output far exceeding domestic demand, while government coffers will swell with annual income expected to be over $10 billion annually in less than a decade,” he says.
The ability of Guyana and Suriname—and their right—to develop economically by utilizing their oil reserves should not be impeded by the climate-frenzied.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, VA, and a Contributing Writer with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, UK, and resides in Bengaluru, India.
“Common sense “
Does not feature in national or global politics. What counts is the narrative, no matter how insane it might be – Sri Lanka is just the latest example.
We in the UK have already had the insane prices for electricity from Belgium – not even an eyebrow has been raised about that, let alone a word. And now rather than do something positive about the problem….
“This week, at an extraordinary summit, EU members agreed to a European Commission proposal to slash their gas use by a punishing 15 per cent over the next eight months. From August 2022 to March 2023, the lamps will, quite literally, be going out all over Europe.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/07/27/the-lights-are-going-out-across-europe/
Please don’t mention common sense, politicians and climate change nonsense in the same sentence. They really don’t go together.
Like Parliament as a whole, Truss and Sunak have reiterated a top-line commitment to the net-zero emissions target set for 2050.
QED
Lol, the EU is going to be a walk over in no time. Can’t keep the military defence going on renewables, but if the nth hemisphere winter is record breaking, maybe it will wake up the sheep. 1000s of frozen solid Europeans mite do it.
“ Can’t keep the military defence going on renewables,”
One shouldn’t really have to point out such an obvious fact.
“In 10 years, some of our brigade combat teams will be all-electric,” said Donald Sando, Deputy to the Commanding General, at the Association of the US Army’s annual meeting “
https://www.alphr.com/cars/1007425/the-us-army-has-its-sights-set-on-all-electric-tanks/
But one does.
The inculcation of climate change and DIE (diversity, inclusion and equity) into the military is rapidly eroding its effectiveness as a fighting force. The next real President will have to confront this rot immediately.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2022/07/21/the-next-republican-president-must-fix-the-military-first-n2610493
It make me think of an army of powered out Duracell bunnies…
European defense against who? Russia can barely hold 1/3 of Ukraine; PR China is too far away.
If anything Washington’s Lukewarm War in Ukraine has proven that all the State department’s projections of Russia’s military were as bad as their Iraki or Syrian WMD’s. Just fearmongering to stimulate the arms industry in the US and UK.
The Europeans (& Japan + South Korea) sold their independent foreign policies in 1945 when they traded it for the US protection racket.
Let them freeze to get their common senses back.
In response to the gas slash, the Ukraine has offered to sell a bunch of electricity to the EU. link
I used to think that, when renewable energy stupidity started to cause real hardship for folks, people would examine climate change more closely. That doesn’t look like it’s happening. Sigh.
That’s the power of [school/university led] indoctrination (~30 years worth) and incessant media propaganda
Exactly! Remember how the gene therapy shot was “perfect protection.” You wouldn’t get Covid or spread Covid.
Now the claim is it lessons symptoms and keeps you from dying.
VERY FEW remember the former. Propaganda at works!
Except that we are now seeing (but not in the MSM) reports of covid surges, hospitalizations, and deaths in highly vaxed countries. See https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/heavily-vaxxed-japans-sars-cov-2-surge-turns-deadly-hospitalizations-accelerate-death-toll-now-growing-1f735571 and https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/record-covid-19-deaths-in-new-zealand-despite-near-universally-vaxxed-and-heavily-boosted-population-36366ce2 as 2 examples. TSN also has a report on a country wide observational study in the UK that shows similar results there.
Yep, those gene therapy shots are safe and effective 😉
Heh. Someone didn’t fully get what you meant at 0504. Just wanted you to know someone (else) did. 😏
Yep.
Apparently Goebbels never said the following:
link
The first sentence is true. I think the part about state involvement isn’t necessary. We have witnessed the Long March Through the Institutions as the Marxist/postmodernist/woke have subverted society. As far as I can tell, the active involvement of the state wasn’t necessary for most of the march. Politicians are now infected but they weren’t originally pushing it.
And, with what I find is maximum irony, the Russians have offered to sell power to the Ukrainians from the Zaphorozhiya nuclear plant. Of course, that is a Ukrainian occupied by the Russians earlier in the war. What large brass ones! “We will sell you power from the plant we stole from you.”
Do they still have gas lamps, there, then?
Soon they won’t have anything – and they’ll be happy, apparently.
No, the gas makes the steam that makes the electricity.
But if we used coal to go back to making town gas, gas lamps might come back.
Move the rigs in the US gulf fields, Brandon is going to shut them all down anyway.
If they can somehow guarantee that the governments won’t just nationalize the assets as soon as the fields are producing.
I would recommend installing below grade shut off valves on the wells that are non reversible in the case of a government takeover requiring drilling of new wells after the fail safe is operated.
They should apply to join BRICS.
If they join BRICS, I hope they count their fingers after shaking hands with Beijing.
I’ll bet the Chicoms would be willing to invest there.
The Chicoms are already there, partnered with Exxon and Hess.
I spent 6 weeks in Guyana in 2009, anchored about 50kms up the Essequibo river near Bartica, on one of only 4 yachts that had visited that year. The people were delightful and yes, mostly desperately poor. They really deserve some good fortune.
Unfortunately, they have politicians. Those are the ones most likely to grab good fortune.
Is Guyana a Muslim country? Their president has a Muslim name and he says he’ll open up the oil to the Saudi’s. Not familiar with why a South American country would be Muslim. ANy thoughts?
Possible sign of Germany maybe beginning to come to its senses. Well, it doesn’t have much choice, does it.
“Amazing: Not only may Germany keep operating 3 nuclear plants set to close at the end of this year, it could also *restart* the 3 closed last year within “a few months or weeks,” says the head of Germany’s safety regulator.”
Michael Schellenberger on Twitter
(I came across that linked to on the blog of a Free Church of Scotland Minister, David Robertson. The blog is called The Wee Flea.)
If they have any sense they will fire up all their nuclear reactors.
And then they should tear down all their windmills and replace them with proper generating technology.
Supposedly they can’t get fuel for them. Since Merkel’s foolish decision in, what, 2011?,, the supply chain that produces fuel rods, which begins with the decision to invest in exploring for uranium reserves, is committed to other reactors. It assumed that Germany would not be needing any more. The German nuclear industry would also have to reactivate the training pipeline for German-speaking engineers and construction/operating trades who know nuclear. An big shot in Germany’s industry said, “Reviving nuclear is certainly the right question. Unfortunately it’s too late for Germany.” I’ll get the source for this. My tablet is clumsy.
Source for above pessimism:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/could-germany-keep-its-nuclear-plants-running-2022-06-22/
The world uses 100 million barrels PER DAY, or 36.5 billion barrels per year
The 18 billion barrels of Guyana and Suriname, IF RECOVERABLE, would last 6 months, a big deal for the elites of these countries, no big deal for the world.
It would take about 5 years to start production
If we followed your line of reasoning nobody would do anything.
Totally absurd.
Oh, ok. Let’s just leave it in the ground then.
Oil production is from a “thousand” straws and this is a promising “straw” among many.
Keep it coming.
What you missed in the article was, “… offshore oil reserves that are on track to produce revenue for decades.” It becomes a supplement to all the other sources, for decades.
Does that guy literally think these countries are going to be the SOLE producer of oil??? Man! I just don’t get the lack of thinking.
That’s the same crap we heard back when sane people were shouting, “Drill, baby, drill!” Malthusians are as predictable as they are tiresome. Obama The Obtuse said we couldn’t just drill our way to lower gas prices, then we quickly drilled our way to lower gas prices.
Exxon is already producing and a second FSPO will be online by year end.
Yep, and in WWII, navy ships fighting incoming fighters and bombers had a miniscule chance of shooting down each plane for each shot fired. Why did they even TRY to shoot down those planes.
More examples of this type of idiocy?
BTW, and someone like David Middleton would know this, has there EVER been a case where an oil fields RECOVERABLE resources did not increase as the drilling and recovery progressed?
Still Willem, every little bit counts and for these poor countries it’s a major windfall! This can lead to more exploration and greater assets, so they can have prosperity provided the elites share the benefits. I’me a glass half full guy, so hope for the best out of this self induced climate change/energy mess the world is embroiled in.
This offshore Guyana petro discovery is a good piece of work by Exxon-Mobil. Bonus Time: the oil is light and sweet. Light means flows easily and needs less refining, and sweet means low-sulfur, which gives access to more refineries. These discoveries could move Guyana and Suriname into increased wealth and health, or they could go the Venezuela route.
‘Bonus Time: the oil is light and sweet.’
Generally speaking, yes. But one of the huge advantages the large USGC refineries have is that they can efficiently process heavier, and very much cheaper, crudes from places like Venezuela, which, as you mentioned, has self-destructed. This is the reason why Brandon’s interference with Canadian heavy crude imports is a big deal.
Unfortunately corruption will win out the day. They could probably start a sovereign wealth fund like Norway, but greed will be their downfall.
Let us just hope that the proceeds benefit the poor in these countries and not just the happy few.
It sort of puts the dampers on “the oil is running out!” claim, does it not? What with these two nations & Brazil recently discovering oil reserves off its coastline bigger than the Middle East’s, & didn’t scientists under Stalin determine that oil was a mineral based fuel & not a fossil based fuel, I think oil-based fuel will be around for a fair old time to come!!!???
“As of the end of 2018, the Middle East holds 836.1 thousand million barrels out of the world’s total proved reserves of 1729.7 thousand million barrels of oil, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019.”
In what alternate universe is 17 billion + 8 billion greater than 836 billion?
Soros will rush his Greenshirts in to put a stop to this.
Perhaps China will be happy to ‘invest’ if no-one else does.
Georgie has been using CCP as a cutout to shuffle money to leftist groups for years.
China already invested and the field is already producing.
Exxon-Hess announced 2 more discoveries in the Starbroek block yesterday.
This is the best exploration story going right now (that & maybe Alaska North Slope topset play).
I wonder if China will capture those oil fields while our elites shackle us? Just a rhetorical question. Of course they will.
Speaking of shackles, I saw the following quote on the interweb, but it clearly demonstrates how the U.S. shackles U.S. supply by controlling what can be leased and cleverly, falsely blame producers.
“6. Every year, the federal government leases tracts of land to oil companies so they can explore on it for oil. If enough oil is found during exploration, the company can then apply for a drilling permit which allows them to drill a well. If no oil is found during exploration, or if the amount found is not enough to be profitable the lease expires without ever being drilled on. Leases that are active, but not being drilled on does NOT mean that oil companies are being lazy, or are trying to keep the oil for themselves, etc. etc. It means they’ve either explored the lease for oil and found nothing, or found oil but it’s not enough to justify drilling for. That’s a fact…
Markets (demand and supply) and money will determine the exploitation of these new oil and gas fields, not warmunist rhetoric.
Tell that to people in New England who have been prevented from buying cheaper domestic gas from Pennsylvania, so they have to be buy expensive LNG from Russia, et al.
Nasty, stupid people, incapable of (and uninterested in) being productive members of society, can still throw monkey wrenches into wheels of progress.
The Duane poster is (purposely?) trying to conflate ‘warmunist rhetoric’ with actual enacted & un-enacted laws, rules, policy, and preferences that are enforced by all levels of the govt from the president all the way down to the towns that are thinking of banning natural gas or trying to outlaw the sale of diesel.
The Duane poster is trying to downplay the laws, rules, policy, and preferences that are enforced legally & illegally, as if they are simply rhetoric. He is either deceitful, or he has his head up his ass.
You are a sad sack who is clueless about human nature … money is what makes the world go round, always has, always will … all ideologies become corrupted with money, no matter what the proponents claim.
The Duane poster is trying to downplay the laws, rules, policy, and preferences that are enforced legally & illegally, as if they are simply rhetoric. He is either deceitful, or he has his head up his ass.
Doesn’t change the fact that Pennsylvania is exploiting the hell out of their oil and gas resources selling to all willing buyers. As they should. If New Englanders don’t buy it, the rest of the world certainly is.
Markets control everything – only politicians, ideologues, and ignorant nimrods pretend otherwise. Everyone is selling something, and buying something all the time.
what are you trying to sell?
“Dha pbresidfent dovs noft halffv dha bability dhue impafct oil pfricless”.
Better get back on your drug supply
I was just trying to see things from your perspective … with my head up my ass.
“the most promising oil discovery hotspot on earth.”
“the most exciting oil frontier on earth.”
Indeed, there are geological indicators which suggest the “petroleum fairway” is far, far, far larger than even suggested in this article.
I suggest an apt analogy is that of a “beard” that stretches around the “chin” of South America: starting in Venezuela, running through the two countries described here with Brazil also having off-shore oil & gas deposits, and Argentina has yet to be explored extensively.
Another apt analogy is that of a “pearl necklace” of oil & gas draped off-shore from Venezuela to the South of Brazil (where most of Brazil’s known deposits exist).
Again & again, the discoveries are huge and in a succession of oil fields. No one knows how much oil & gas are down there.
Huge amounts of hydrocarbons… ancient algae accounts for all that?
No, the cause is geo-chemical & geo-physical processes, independent of “ancient algae” or bacteria. Yes, abiotic oil processes, which is why we keep running into oil.
As long as we keep looking for hydrocarbons.
Off-shore oil production in the “New World” is a strategic advantage for America.
South America has huge untapped reserves. Venezuela has barely been scratched as well as Eastern Colombia. Argentina has massive reserves in their West. The problem is politics, not physics.
Yes, it’s politics.
Antarctica was once tropical. A lot of potential fossil hydrocarbons under all that ice.
I have heard that Elon Musk is, instead of buying useless Twitter, is considering financing these huge oil discoveries. He will name the company “Musk Oil”.
Of course, I could be mistaken.
Is it really called “Equatorial” Guyana? Are you confusing the country with Equatorial Guinea?
Anyhow Exxon is already producing. I believe they will be up to 300 kbd. by year end. Other FSPO’s are already under construction.
Do not confuse Guyana (South America) with Equatorial Guinea (Africa)
“Around 2035, the output from Guyana is expected to be around 1.4 bpd”
I would hope, a bit more than that.
Discoveries such as this ‘should’, but likely won’t, shut up those twits who want us to go back to the hardships of two hundred years ago.
’Equatorial Guyana and Suriname—situated side-by-side and bounded by the equator and Atlantic Ocean’.
I suppose I have missed that Equatorial Guinea (Africa) and Guyana (South America) had a child, which they named Equatorial Guyana.
In the Green mind the spectre of heathy,happy, prosperous dark skinned people raises it’s ugly head.