Page 11 - LatAmOil Week 24 2021

LatAmOil SURINAME LatAmOil

Paramaribo, creditors spar over oil

revenues in debt restructuring talks

SURINAME’S future oil revenues have become responded that they do not agree with that,” he
a sticking point in negotiations between the gov- told legislators earlier this week. “Is that the end
ernment and creditors on a debt restructuring of the world? No. We are showing leadership,
deal. and we are continuing to negotiate.”
Paramaribo is pursuing the deal in a bid to Suriname is not yet a major oil producer,
restructure $675mn worth of US dollar-denom- though it does extract about 15,000 barrels per
inated bonds due to mature in 2023 and 2026. day (bpd) of crude from a handful of onshore
It managed to strike an agreement on deferring fields. Output levels are expected to start climb-
payments in April, but a committee of its credi- ing rapidly once the country’s large offshore
tors – including the Eaton Vance, Franklin Tem- fields begin production, however. The first
pleton and Graylock Partners investment firms licence area to come on stream will be Block
– decided earlier this week to invoke a “termina- 58, where France’s TotalEnergies and its partner
tion clause” that upends that deal. Apache (US) have made four commercial dis-
According to a Reuters report, the committee coveries. The block is likely to hold nearly 6bn
took that step partly because it could not resolve barrels of oil equivalent (boe) in recoverable
a dispute with Suriname’s government on the reserves, according to a report from Morgan
inclusion of projected oil revenues in economic Stanley. ™
forecasts.
Members of the committee believe that these
revenues should inform the models, which will
help determine whether creditors should take a
loss on the bonds.
By contrast, government officials have argued
that these projected revenues should not factor
into the forecasts, since they are not yet “on the
books” – that is, in production. They have also
pointed out that the practice of including future
oil revenues in current economic models is at
odds with the guidelines issued by the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF), which is currently
in negotiations with Paramaribo on a $690mn
financing agreement.
As of press time, the parties had not decided
how to proceed with the restructuring talks.
However, Suriname’s President Chan Santokhi
signalled that his administration intended to
continue discussions.
“We have offered our proposals. They have Block 58 is due to come on stream in 2025 (Image: TotalEnergies)

BRAZIL
Saipem, DSME to build FPSO for Búzios

BRAZIL’S national oil company (NOC) Petro- oilfield in the Santos basin.
bras has struck a deal with a consortium formed Petrobras announced the award in a state-
by Italy’s Saipem and South Korea’s Daewoo ment earlier this week, saying that the parties
Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) on had signed a contract that followed the engi-
the construction of a new floating production, neering, procurement and construction (EPC)
storage and off-loading (FPSO) unit. model. It put the value of the project at $2.3bn
The consortium has agreed to build a ves- and noted that the FPSO would be known as the
sel that will be deployed at Búzios, an offshore P-78.

Week 24 17•June•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11