(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – Staatsolie will achieve an estimated record US$ 796 million turnover for the 2011 financial year; this is 41% more that in 2010, when turnover was US$ 566 million. This is mostly owing to the increased average oil price on the global markets of US$ 100 a barrel, compared to US$ 71 last year. The government will earn a record US$ 300 million from the oil company as well, which is 49% higher than last year’s US$ 202 million. “These are figures the company and nation can be proud of”, Staatsolie’s managing director Marc Waaldijk said at the company’s end of the year celebration yesterday. Profits before taxes amount to US$ 450 million, a 55% increase compared to 2010. The company also achieved a record production of 5.98 million barrels of crude oil based on a daily production of 16,380 barrels. This production level is 3% higher than the 2010 record. Sixty-one new wells had to be taken into operation in order to keep production levels steady. Staatsolie now has a total of 1,418 wells in the Tambaredjo, Tambaredjo-Noordwest and Calcutta fields.
The oil refinery processed 2.63 million barrels of crude oil and saw a slight increase in production and sales compared to 2010. The Surinamese market still purchases 55% of its diesel, fuel oil and bitumen from the refinery. Exports of diesel and fuel oil increased by 10%, while bitumen exports to Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad, Curacao and Jamaica increased by 87%. The US$ 500 million expansion of the refinery will start in the first quarter of 2012.
