Natural Resources

Green energies :

Due to its geographical characteristics, Suriname possesses a great potential for the development of businesses related to:

• Solar energy: the country has an average rate of 2.542 hours of sunshine per year . Moreover, the Sun is rarely entirely absent, especially during the
  long dry season, and provides a global radiation from an average of 450 watt/m.
• Biomass: its production will certainly play an important role in the near future due to the favorable circumstances for the agrarian production of crops such as Jatropha, sugarcane, oil palm, coconut, elephant grass and rice, as well as to the climatological circumstance that benefits the cultivation
  of algae.
• Hydropower: due to the existence of four major rivers with large volumes of tidal water and strong tidal currents, there is room for installing
  micro-hyrdropower plants along big rivers and in the direct surrounding of several villages in the interior.
• Wind energy: studies are still under development, but there are signs indicating that the coastal and offshore areas may offer ideal conditions for the
  installation of windmills .
• Value chain for the generation of sustainable energies: Taking into account the ideal geographical and climate characteristics of Suriname as well as the liberalization that the green energies’ self-consumption market has, opportunities exist for the whole value chain related to the production and
  commercialization of goods and services linked to it.
• Energy efficiency in buildings: the renewal and rehabilitation of buildings in order to improve their energetic efficiency is an emergent market in Suriname.

Gold:

The extraction of natural resources has been a lead sector since gold was discovered in 2004. Even if most of it can be found in the eastern part of Suriname, within the Greenstone Belt, reserves are also available in the west.

In the last decades, gold has turned into a major economic source for the country, being its key exporting product:

• Average value of exports (2016/2020): 1.494.610 thousand USD/year.
• Main destination countries: Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Belgium and the United States of America.

Competitive advantages:

• Gold purity: Suriname gold typically is 92 to 93 percent pure (after removing impurities)
• Human resources: existence of local workforce with experience in mining
• Supported skills development: existence of scientific-training programs such as the Het Natuurtechnisch Instituut
• Large gold reserve: valued at approximately 4.2 million ounces, good for a production period of 11 to 13 years
• Fiscal terms for large-scale gold mines are essentially negotiable: royalty payments are determined on a case-to-case basis through their specific agreement with the Republic of Suriname.
• Royalties for small-scale gold: fixed at 1% , lower than the rates in neighboring countries.
• Types of activities with potential: the country offers a wide variety of services for this large supply chain: melting, assaying, evaluation, vaulting, bullion trading, coins, medallions and investment bars distribution, global logistics, and liability coverage and insurance for the international transportation of precious metals
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Oil and Gas:

Oil was first discovered in Suriname in 1928 on the coastal plain, close to the western border, but systematic exploration both onshore and offshore only started in the 1960s, when various international oil companies (IOCs) became interested. Oil became the primary industry by the mid-1990s, overtaking bauxite. Total oil production in the last 35 years reached 100 million barrels of crude oil and, in parallel, has boosted the total value of exports:

• Average value of oil exports (2016/2020): 91.500 thousand USD/year.
• Main destination countries: Guyana, France and United States of America.

Competitive advantages:

• New oil hot spots: Suriname is rapidly growing as a key hotspot in the Caribbean region, as recent discoveries in offshore Blocks 52 and 58 have detected new wells with excellent oil properties (an API gravity ranging from 27º to 37º). Moreover, even if three reserves are still under evaluation, the prospections performed until 2021 show reserves accounting for more than 1.300 million barrels.
• Active exploration: exploration onshore and offshore has been taken up in order to compensate the under-exploration of the Suriname-Guyana Basin . The United States Geological Survey (USGS) ranked in 2000 the Guyana Suriname Basin as the 2nd in terms of prospectivity among the world’s unexplored basins and estimated its potential in:
  – 15.2 billion barrels of crude oil,
  – 42.058,37 billion cubic feet / 1.190,86 cubic meters of gas and
  – 2,329.62 million barrels of natural gas liquids.
• Low production costs: about 30 or 40 dollars / 26,5 or 35,4 € per barrel
• Supported skills development: existence of training and management programs and initiatives such as: the Master’s Program in Petroleum Geology in the Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname or Hydrology and Engineering in the Polytechnic College of Suriname
• Wider shared production agreements: they last for 5 to 10 more years than other Latin-American countries
• Large production of oil: allows the country to have high levels of primary energy self-sufficiency. The result is very low electricity price at around 7
  cents per kWh
• Significant spin-off industry around oil
• Types of activity with potential: exploration companies, prime contractors, subcontractors, service providers, consulting, investment firms, among others.

Forestry:

• Due to the fact that 93% of the country is forested, forestry is a sector with great potential.
• The average export value of the wood in the rough or roughly squared between 2016 and 2020 is of 111.327 thousand USD.
• Most of the exports are destined to India and China.
• According to the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) calculated by the UNCTAD for the country in 2019, Suriname is a competitive producer and exporter of wood in the rough and roughly squared (RCA of 68) and wood simply worked and railway sleepers of food (RCA of 2.2).