APA Suriname Corp. LDC (APA) and its partners CEPSA and Petronas have returned part of Block 53 offshore Suriname to state oil firm Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname NV, limiting its continued exploration to the Baja-1 oil discovery.
Staatsolie signed a production sharing contract with APA for Block 53 in October 2012. The exploration period expired on Dec. 31, 2023, and APA and its partners decided not to exercise the option to extend a work program that would involve drilling at least one exploration well, Staatsolie said in a release Feb. 29.
Staatsolie will bring the vacated part of Block 53 back under contract later this year.
Between 2015 and 2021, four exploration wells were drilled in Block 53. The only discovery was at Baja-1 (OGJ Online, Aug. 3, 2022). It encountered 34 m of net oil pay in a single interval within the Campanian. The discovery at Baja-1 is a down-dip lobe of the same depositional system as the TotalEnergies-operated Krabdagu discovery (APA, 50%), 11.5 km to the west in Block 58.
In November 2013, Spanish oil company CEPSA entered into an agreement with APA, acquiring a 25% stake in Block 53. Petronas entered into a partnership in April 2014 for a 30% stake.
APA is operator of the block with 45% working interest. Partners are Petronas (30%) and CEPSA (25%).
Additional Suriname investment
As part of a Feb. 22 filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, APA noted the change in Suriname holdings, saying during 2023 the company was granted an extension to retain about 13,000 net undeveloped acres for its operated Baja discovery area, allowing the remaining net undeveloped acres to expire in Block 53 as of end 2023.
As part of the filing, APA said it plans to invest $50 million toward progressing a large-scale FPSO project in Suriname. The company holds 50% interest in TotalEnergies-operated Block 58 where the companies completed appraisal of the two main oil discoveries, Sapakara South and Krabdagu. Confirmed combined resources are close to 700 million bbl for the two fields, TotalEnergies has said.