U.S. oil major Chevron, and a consortium between France's TotalEnergies and Qatar's Qatar Petroleum have submitted winning bids for shallow-water offshore acreage in Suriname, Suriname's national oil company Staatsolie said Friday.
Staatsolie said the trio had submitted "most favorable" bids for the relevant blocks offered in the SHO Bid Round 2020/2021 which had closed for bidding on April 30.
In total Staatsolie received a total of ten bids for three of the eight blocks which were on offer. The blocks are located in the west of the Shallow Offshore area, south of the recent deepwater discoveries made in Block 58, and northwest of the onshore producing fields.
Chevron filed the most favorable bid for Block 5, and the TotalEnergies and Qatar Petroleum joint venture for Block 6 and Block 8.
"Staatsolie and the successful bidders are now in the process of concluding Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) for the relevant blocks and will make further announcements once the PSCs are awarded," Staatsolie said.
Staatsolie previously said that the obligation for the winning firms would be obliged to carry out new 3D seismic data surveys in the 1st exploration phase with a drill-or-drop decision before drilling in subsequent phases.