According to Reuters, Suriname’s state-owned oil company is planning a bond sale next year to finance offshore oil exploration.
Staatsolie’s Chief Executive, Rudolf Elias has indicated that the company is considering listing some of its shares on the New York or London stock exchanges to help raise between $1 billion and $2 billion to develop its offshore drilling program.
Suriname hopes to replicate some of the success of neighboring Guyana. Exxon in Guyana has had success in more than 10 discoveries and has the potential of 5 billion barrels of oil. Recently Tullow announced a discovery in an adjacent block.
These discoveries are geologically close to Suriname’s waters and Elias said that he was optimistic that Staatsolie or one of its partner companies would strike oil soon.
One of the major partners is US based Apache Corp who is expected to begin drilling in the coming months.