The Malaysian oil company Petronas will begin drilling for oil off the coast of Suriname on Sunday. The test drillings are intended to locate additional oil reserves, the Surinamese state oil company Staatsolie announced on Saturday.
The environmental authority in Suriname granted a permit for the project last month. The deep-sea area off the coast of Suriname is divided into several blocks. The drilling will take place in Block 52, an area of 4,749 square kilometers where oil reserves have previously been found.
Petronas is active in six so-called exploration blocks and has made four oil and gas discoveries to date.
Suriname hopes to earn billions from the oil that has been discovered in its waters in recent years. However, converting exploration success into tangible oil production in Suriname seems more challenging than in neighboring Guyana. This is partly due to the high natural gas content of crude oil from Suriname.