Suriname shelves oil royalty payout

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 October 2025, 21:29 by Writer

The three-month old Suriname government, led by President Jennifer Geerlings Simons, has scrapped an initiative to distribute oil royalties of US$750 plus interest to all Surinamese, the Minister of Economic Affairs, Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation, Andrew Baasaron said this week.

He told an International Business Conference (IBC) 2025 panel discussion on the topic “Regional Powerhouses in Action – Guyana & Regional Partners’ Shared Vision for Growth” that Suriname did not have sufficient money to forge ahead with that plan. “The challenge, though, is that we don’t have the income that Guyana has at the moment,” he said.

The Guyana government late last year and into the new year distributed GY$100,000 (approximately US$458.00) to more than 600,000 adults.

The Chandrikapersad Santokhi administration, which was defeated in the May 2025 elections and made way for Dr Geerlings-Simons to assume office in July after a lengthy constitutionally permissible process, had pegged the payout to projected royalties from the Gran Morgu offshore project which is expected to be producing 220,000 barrels of oil by 2028. The France-headquartered TotalEnergies is pumping US$10.5 billion into developing GranMorgu in Block 58 offshore Suriname.

The Suriname economy minister said instead of the royalty payout, the new government decided not to “just give the money even though people need the financial injection” but rather invest the funds sustainably in companies, new technologies and people.

Mr Baasaron said Suriname has to evolve out of depending heavily on government and instead produce more. “There are some ideas of how to speed up the process of development of our people and that’s what we are looking at more than again just spreading the wealth although we didn’t have it,” Mr Baasaron added.