A consortium of foreign oil companies has halted exploration
activities in waters off Suriname after obtaining mixed results and
deciding it was risky and expensive to continue, reports Reuters (April
19, 2001). Eddie Jharap, general manager of the Suriname State Oil Co.,
said that the Suriname
Deep Water Consortium had carried out more than
6,000 km of seismic exploration, concentrating on three main target
areas. SDWC, which includes Burlington Resources Inc., Shell Exploration
and Production, TotalFinaElf and Korea National Oil Corp., had signed an
exploration and production-sharing agreement with Suriname for a huge
swathe of offshore acreage in August 1999.