In addition to oil exploration, cooperation between Brazil and Suriname will be promising in the areas of trade, energy investments, security, as well as immigration and consular matters.

Suriname, which discovered huge oil reserves in deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean, is considering giving preference to the Brazilian state-owned giant Petrobras, with vast experience in this area. That's what Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday during his visit to the neighboring country.

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“I appreciate what we said recently about the possible priority that could be given to Brazil, through Petrobras, to come here to collaborate in oil and gas exploration,” said the Brazilian head of state in a press release with the president of Suriname. , Chandrikapersad Santokhi, after their meeting on January 20 in Paramaribo.

Watch President Bolsonaro's official visit to Suriname below

Brazil offers Suriname and Guyana the experience that Petrobras has in oil and gas exploration in deep and ultra-deep waters

The Brazilian president admitted that one of the purposes of his visit to Suriname last Thursday and to Guyana on Friday is to offer the two neighboring countries the experience that Brazil has in offshore oil and gas exploration.

Petrobras, which extracts more than 95% of the oil it produces in offshore basins, is one of the world's leading companies in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in deep and ultra-deep waters.

Petrobras has several decades of experience in exploring hydrocarbons from underwater deposits and already exploits gigantic reserves in marine basins off its northern coast of Brazil, close to the basins where Suriname and Guyana discovered their deposits.

In a direct social media broadcast to his followers, on Thursday night, Bolsonaro reiterated that the president of Suriname promised to study the possibility of giving Brazil “priority and preference” in the exploration of these reserves through Petrobras.

In the same broadcast, the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, who is accompanying the official on his visit, assured that in the Suriname and Guyana sea basin “proven reserves correspond to 40% of what Brazil discovered in the pre-sale” .

The pre-sale is an exploration horizon that Petrobras discovered in very deep waters of the Atlantic, below a layer of salt two kilometers thick, whose reserves could make Brazil one of the five largest oil exporters in the world.

Energy cooperation also provides for the possibility for Suriname to meet the electricity supply needs of the northern states of Brazil, which depend on energy imported from Venezuela.

“These countries have a lot of gas and oil. That is why these countries give importance to Brazil, which already has a lot of experience in this area”, said Albuquerque.

"One of the priorities (of the visit) is regional energy integration, due to the great potential that these two countries have," he insisted.

Energy cooperation, including in the area of ​​oil and gas, was one of the highlights of the Joint Declaration that Bolsonaro and Santokhi released after his appointment.

According to the document, the two countries committed themselves to “analyzing the possibilities, in light of the development of the offshore oil and gas industry in Suriname, of cooperation related to technical and institutional capacity building, development of local content and renewable energies”.

Energy cooperation also provides for the possibility for Suriname to meet part of the electricity supply needs of the northern states of Brazil, which are not connected to the national electricity system and depend on energy imported from Venezuela.

In the Joint Declaration, both countries also committed to “exchanging information on their respective national energy plans and exchanging regulatory experiences in the oil and gas sector, including the regulation of local content, as well as collaboration in the prevention of accidents due to oil spills”.

Suriname thanked the covid vaccines donated to its country

In the statement they jointly offered to the press, the president of Suriname thanked the vaccines against Covid donated by Brazil to his country, and highlighted the important cooperation between the two countries, reflected in a record of 25 different projects.

He added that he hopes this cooperation will be extended to new areas, “I am convinced that our future cooperation in various areas, including trade, energy investments including oil and gas, security, defence, as well as immigration and consular affairs, will certainly yield concrete results for mutual benefit”, said Santokhi.