Heritage, Paria and Staatsolie Sign MOU

On Monday 27 June 2022, a Memorandum of Understanding ('MoU') between Heritage Petroleum Company Limited ('Heritage'), Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited ('Paria'), and Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname N.V. ('Staatsolie') was executed in Paramaribo, Suriname on the sidelines of the Suriname Energy, Oil and Gas Summit. The MoU establishes a framework for cooperation amongst three of the top state-owned energy companies in the Caribbean region.

The parties initially met in November 2021 when a high-level delegation representing Suriname and its national oil company, Staatsolie, met with members of the leadership of Heritage and Paria at Heritage’s Port of Spain, Trinidad office.

Present at the signing meeting were Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, the Honourable Stuart Young; CEO of Heritage, Arlene Chow; Managing Director of Staatsolie, Annand Jagesar; and General Manager of Paria Mushtaq Mohammed. Under the MoU, the Parties agreed to enter into discussions related to identifying mutually beneficial partnership opportunities under three broad areas - Exploration and Production (E&P); Trading and Marketing; and Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG). Minister Young affirmed the opportunities for collaboration among the MoU parties and expressed, 'as Caricom partners, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname will work together to address the challenges to develop our energy sectors as well as those of our region. Our countries have an important role to play in energy security for the region. I look forward to a fruitful relationship and I am pleased that discussions have already commenced among the parties'.

Over the coming months, a number of opportunities under the aforementioned three broad categories will be assessed and further developed. At the end of this assessment exercise, if one or more opportunities are judged to be feasible, then the parties may propose to enter into negotiation of commercial terms.

The signing of the MoU signals the start of the cooperation between the respective state energy companies as well as the forging of deeper relationships between the energy sectors of Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.