The 3 main tasks of Staatsolie Hydrocarbon Institute N.V. are: 

1. Basin Opportunity Management
   Maximize the value of hydrocarbon resources in our basin for Suriname, by evaluating the O&G potential, attracting investors and concluding petroleum agreements.
2. Data Management
   Protect, preserve and manage all petroleum data of Suriname.
   (geological, geophysical, petrophysical, geochemical, logs, maps, cores, cuttings, other interpretations and analytical reports) 
3. Contract Acreage Management
   Monitor the execution of petroleum agreements, including  Contractors’ performance under production sharing contracts.

With the significant hydrocarbon discoveries and therefore the now burgeoning petroleum industry in Suriname, we want to seize the opportunity to play a part in increasing the awareness of Local Content related potential.

To this end Staatsolie commissioned Development Alternatives Incorporated, DAI, to carry out an Industrial Baseline Study to assess the preparedness of the Surinamese private sector under the conditions of a potential supply and demand landscape and the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

The study highlights insights into the roles of different stakeholders and which possible strategies and actions could mitigate gaps and what kind of investments would be required to partake in the petroleum sector developments.

Potential suppliers who want to be informed on the developments within the offshore petroleum sector can register on the Supplier Registration Portal (SRP). For questions related to the SRP visit the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Download: Industrial Baseline Study Findings Presentation (Nov 2018)  

All petroleum ventures in Suriname are covered by a Production Sharing Contract (PSC), because the PSC allows investor participation while retaining national ownership of shares of petroleum produced. The additional benefits are: 

• Low risk for host country 
• Knowledge transfer from IOC to host country 
• Optimal cost recovery strategy for stakeholders 

Through PSCs the host government awards the execution of exploration and production activities to an oil company. The oil company bears the mineral and financial risk of the initiative and explores, develops and ultimately produces the field as required. When successful, the company is permitted to use the money from produced oil to recover capital and operational expenditures, known as "cost oil". The remaining money is known as "profit oil", and is split between the government and the company. 

By virtue of the Mining Decree (Official Gazette 1986, no 28) concession rights for petroleum activities are granted exclusively to state enterprises. According to the Petroleum Law (Official Gazette 1991, no 7), state enterprises with petroleum concession rights, are authorized to enter into petroleum agreements with other established petroleum companies.  

Our model PSC is publicly available. Download the State Decree Royalty Offshore

SHI is mandated to attract qualified International Oil Companies to sustainably explore and develop Suriname’s hydrocarbon resources. As of November 2023, there are 11 active production sharing contracts in the offshore and onshore areas of Suriname. In the table below a thorough overview of the offshore and onshore Production Sharing Contracts is given from 1957 to present.

Overview PSCs 

The Guiana Basin is a sedimentary basin encompassing the coastal area of French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and the eastern part of Venezuela (Antillean Arch). Most of the Guyana-Suriname Basin lies offshore, where the sediment package becomes thicker as the basin grows deeper. The outcrop of crystalline Proterozoic basement, the Guiana Shield, marks the southern limit.

Commercial production is for the time being only in the onshore Tambaredjo, Calcutta and Tambaredjo Northwest Fields in Suriname, with an original STOIIP of 1 Billion barrels. These fields are currently producing approximately 16,000 BOPD. Staatsolie has been, for the last 40 years, the sole operator of these fields.

1. Basin Evolution
   - Pre-Rift Basin Structures 
   - Central Atlantic (CA) Rift Phase
   - Equatorial Atlantic (EA) Rift Phase
   - Equatorial Atlantic (EA) Post-Rift Phase
2. Geological Framework
   - Geology of Onshore Suriname
   - Basin Architecture
   - Petroleum Geology
3. Petroleum Systems
   - CANJE Formation
   - Inferred Jurassic Source Rock

SHI has collated the vast amount of non-proprietary geological and geophysical data that have been gathered and processed throughout the decades in structured data packages. We are pleased to offer these data packages to competent oil and gas companies to conduct independent evaluations in order to assess the geology and hydrocarbon potential of the Suriname-Guyana Basin. View our data packages here.

If any interested party wishes to purchase any of the data packages or have any inqueries, please send us an email indicating which data package is desired along with any inqueries. Include the following information in your email:

• General company information
• Contact details of company representative

Once the request has been processed, SHI will submit a confidentiality agreement (CA) for signature. After the CA has been signed by both parties, we will invoice the interested party and only release the data package upon confirmation of payment.