Last week’s Suriname Energy Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition (SEOGS 2025) was the first since the historic announcement of a final investment decision for the GranMorgu development by TotalEnergies and their partners in October last year. It was therefore not surprising that it garnered a lot of attention and interest from the global oil and gas community. There was a heavy Trinidad & Tobago presence in Paramaribo last week, with participation from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, state-enterprises and the T&T private sector, including many members of the Energy Chamber of T&T. There are also many Trinidadians working for international service companies who were represented at the event.
The Energy Chamber’s relations with Suriname have been very strong for many years, with the Suriname state oil company, Staatsolie, being a very valued member of our Chamber here in Trinidad and Tobago.
While the GranMorgu project will initially reinject natural gas while the oil is being produced, there was also a lot of discussion at the conference about the potential for developing the significant gas resources. I was honoured to have been invited to share some key lessons from Trinidad & Tobago on the development of a gas industry, based on both our undoubted successes (but also some lessons we’ve learnt the hard way). My three main lessons could be summarized as:
Gas industry development requires long-term investments over many decades, so basic policy consistency and stability are vital (and social acceptance of the industry is an important component of this).
All players along the gas value chain most remain competitive – for a successful gas industry you need upstream gas developers, a midstream to transport and process gas and a downstream sector to transform gas into products. All companies along that value chain need to be profitable for the sector to be sustained.
Put a big emphasis on training and development of people and invest in human capital ahead of the curve. This does not just mean people in the professional roles (geologists, lawyers, engineers etc.) but perhaps even more importantly in the skilled technicians and craft workers who actually make up the bulk of the employment in the sector.
All three of these points seemed to resonate with the audience, but perhaps it was especially the last point that landed especially well. One of the recurrent issues that come up again and again in most of my conversations was the challenge of developing a skilled labour force in Suriname. There are serious concerns from many of the players in Suriname, especially from people in the local private sector, that there are simply not enough people to fill the roles in a rapidly expanding sector (and the anticipated spin-offs in things like hotels, restaurants and taxis).
The area of workforce development would seem to be one where a regional CARICOM approach could be very useful. There is an existing technical and vocational framework through the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) system, and it would seem logical to try to leverage this in the development of skills through out the region. If we can develop a strong cadre of workers with CVQs who can seamlessly move around the region using CARICOM Skills Certificates we will have a much better chance of matching supply and demand for skilled workers.
This is an area where the Energy Chamber will be placing a lot of focus over the next few years, and we look forward to continuing and deepening our relationship with Suriname to jointly address this challenge.