Update: Suriname slouches toward the future

No sign of missing ex-President, but plenty of money to go around

I recently read a mind-boggling Reuters report about the glittering future for offshore gas and oil development in Suriname, a country I last visited in 1990. According to Reuters, a final investment decision for a $10-billion development less than 100 miles off the Surinamese coast was due to be signed Tuesday, October 1, by French oil firm TotalEnergies.

Located in Block 58, the GranMorgu field “estimates recoverable resources amounting to 700 million barrels of oil-equivalent,” in an area adjacent to Exxon Mobil’s massive 11-billion-barrel find off the coast of the next country over, Guyana. This just weeks after Suriname’s state oil company, Staatsolie, announced plans to issue bonds in 2025 as part of a strategy to finance its participation in the development of offshore Block 58.

Staatsolie holds the right to participate in “up to 20% of the field’s development,” and is prepared to spend up to US$1.8 billion, according to a separate report in www.worldoil.com. Reuters quoted a Staatsolie official as saying it was “highly likely” that Staatsolie would succeed in raising the funds needed to exercise its option to buy a 20 percent stake in the project, which is currently split 50-50 between operator TotalEnergies and the Texas-based APA.

The current map of Suriname’s offshore oil development. Courtesy NSEnergybusiness.com

Staatsolie, by the way, has its eyes on a rosy future indeed: it estimates that Suriname's oil and gas resources “could bring in between $16 billion and $26 billion — dwarfing the country's $4.34 billion GDP.” (See the full report at https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/totalenergies-sign-10-billion-investment-surinames-first-offshore-project-this-2024-09-30/ )

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil and Petronas (Malaysian multinational giant) are teaming up to develop nearby Block 52, according to reports in Offshore-mag.com. Petronas announced in August that it has achieved success offshore Suriname with its Sloanea-2 appraisal well in Block 52, which was drilled in June. That was apparently worth at least another $1 billion.

The fact that Suriname, plagued by near-runaway inflation and an economy held together with chewing gum, poker chips, and scotch tape, may even be able to consider borrowing such an amount of money is a comical tribute to the foolishness of bond markets everywhere.

The secondary fact that tiny Suriname [population 600,000?] has long been considered one of the most corrupt nations in the Western Hemisphere—with or without the leadership of deposed ex-president Desi Bouterse, current fugitive from a 20-year sentence after his conviction was upheld last year for his role in a spate of 1980s murders—makes observers wonder who will actually administer all that money after the bonds are issued. That is, if anyone will buy them …

According to S&PGlobal, Suriname’s most recent credit rating (December 2023) is a dismal “CCC+/C-” —barely a step up from its previous Selective Default status. “Suriname has reached restructuring agreements with all official creditors, excluding China; commercial creditors that had provided export credit agency-backed loans; and the Central Bank of Suriname; and is finalizing agreements with other commercial domestic and foreign creditors for small amounts of remaining debt,” according to the S&PGlobal website.

“We believe these negotiations will conclude the resolution of Suriname's defaulted obligations and are adopting a forward-looking opinion on the sovereign's creditworthiness on its foreign and local currency obligations.” Yet amazingly, “the outlook on the long-term sovereign credit ratings [for Suriname] is stable.” (https://disclosure.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/article/-/view/type/HTML/id/3099377 )

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Still missing, but not for long? Disgraced ex-president Desi Bouterse of Suriname. Public domain

I lived in Paramaribo for two years while posted to the U.S. embassy in Paramaribo, when the economy was in free fall, and the black market for the old Surinamese guilder was 20-to-1 US dollar. The new Suriname dollar, introduced about 20 years ago, is not much of an improvement, worth below 4 U.S. cents today.

I still shake my head at the memory of the dimwitted clan of government officials who ran things back then. They were all terrified at what Bouterse might do if riled. Even after stepping down as dictator, Bouterse continued his murderous sway over the country; a couple of his henchmen murdered a Soviet diplomat in cold blood after hijacking his car on the way to the airport. I had the dubious distinction of being forced to attend his open-casket funeral. It was not a pretty sight.

Somehow, Bouterse still managed to be “elected” president of the country for 10 years (2010-2020) until his disreputable party finally lost control of Parliament. No one knows for sure where he is, although rumors abound that he is simply lying low in the almost impenetrable interior of the country, after disappearing in January. If he can stay in hiding until national elections next May, when his NDP party may well take back control, he may even get a pardon from the next government—and conceivably ease back into his old post, at almost 80.

Meanwhile, former Bouterse ally-turned-insurgent Ronnie Brunswijk—who was waging the near-pointless “revolution” against the government when I was there in 1990—is now Suriname’s vice president, despite an Interpol arrest warrant on his own Dutch drug smuggling conviction.

Vice president Ronnie Brunswijk of Suriname, also wanted by Interpol. Public domain

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The most interesting rumor, however, to me is that U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil may be intent on leasing out the entire fashionable Torarica hotel and casino—in order to provide suitable housing for its top executives—and perhaps, even to build a new wing for its own exclusive use indefinitely. On its website, the hotel’s management group recently announced an extensive, yearlong renovation of all the hotel’s existing rooms, apologizing in advance for any inconvenience to its guests. Hmmm ….

I well remember the old Torarica, which was the hotel of choice in 1990, but was hardly classifiable as a luxury resort back then. Basically, a Holiday Inn with lipstick. Tourism was so rare back then—with an ongoing “revolution” and a basket-case economy—that there was no real demand for a world-class hotel.

Of course, this was before casino gambling was legalized; the photos I have seen of the current hotel show a much larger and more luxurious multi-floor structure, indicating enlargement and expansion in the post-gambling era. Perhaps tourism is really on an upswing now.

The possibilities for future corruption on an unprecedented scale in Suriname are almost laughable. The prospect of so much money is just too good to resist …

But other reports—that drug smuggling and human trafficking are both now expanding their long-suspected footholds in Suriname—worry me even more. According to Caribbeanlife.com, which was reprinting an article from the Miami Herald, “a St. Vincent-owned and registered fishing trawler was intercepted with more than four tons of cocaine just off the north coast of Suriname … with the help of the … US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which estimated its street value at an astonishing $125 million. Officials said the vessel was leased from its owners.

“The vessel that was later identified as the Lady Michelle appeared to be dead-in-the-water and was also in water too deep to conduct normal fishing operations. The vessel was also located in a known drug trafficking route,” a statement from Caricom authorities had said. Suriname’s largest newspaper, De Ware Tijd, also warned that “No control is exercised on the [recreational] ships by the Maritime Authority in Suriname or by the coast guard or police.” In other words, no one was monitoring incoming sea vessels. No real surprise there …

After the summer’s near-shutdown of the Haitian consulate in Paramaribo over a passport scandal—with dozens of Haitian migrants arriving in French Guiana with faked papers, after purchasing tickets on expensive chartered flights to Suriname—it would seem the government has been looking the other way by air, as well, on more than one occasion. Faked Surinamese passports appear to have been involved, indicating someone was stealing blank passports from the Foreign Ministry …

For the full report from mid-August, visit https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article291054245.html .

Haiti, of course, is in a pitiable state, under the thrall of violent street gangs which reportedly control most of Port-au-Prince. It is so violent that an international police force, composed mostly of Kenyans, is being created in an attempt to restore a semblance of order—with the recent addition of other Caribbean troops, including, almost astoundingly, some from Suriname.

According to Caribbeanlife.com, “Jamaica has committed to send 200 mostly men, The Bahamas 150 and Belize 50. Suriname has also committed to contributing personnel but it is unclear when these will be deployed.”

The last time I encountered a Surinamese soldier—guarding the international airport against “unauthorized immigrants,” while shaking down those with any currency on their person—I saw no possibility of their services ever being needed—or wanted—anywhere else. What Surinamese troops might be able to contribute to international stability is beyond me, except for a feeble goodwill gesture from the current government—hoping to bolster its own desperate international image. (See https://www.caribbeanlife.com/jamaican-troops-head-to-haiti-this-week-says-pm-holness/ .)

More when the situation warrants.

Next time: Back to 1900: Research and African American political participation