Latest update January 6th, 2025 4:00 AM
Suriname and Guyana must conserve biodiversity for future generations – Suriname Oil Boss
Kaieteur News – With the revenues that it secures from its oil wealth, Guyana and Suriname should partner to ensure that both countries’ biodiversities remain protected. Both countries can achieve this goal by paying off gold miners with oil monies to conserve its biodiversity for current and future generations. Making this crucial point is Rudolf Elias, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Suriname’s state oil company, Staatsolie.
CEO of Suriname’s Staatsolie, Rudolf Elias
During his first appearance on the Kaieteur Radio’s Guyana’s Oil & You, part of the conversation focused on how countries are seeking to produce oil while also protecting the environment.
While he acknowledged it is a “sensitive subject,” the Suriname Oil Boss sides with international environmental and climate protection organizations, which are calling for the preservation of the earth.
With this, he indicated on the January 4 interview, “Guyana and Suriname have an extremely big, natural resource together, and that is our biodiversity. Our biodiversity is eternal, if we don’t ruin it, and it will prosper 100 generations if we conserve it in the right way.”
This underscores, Elias pointed out, why the neighbouring Guyana and Suriname should work together in the conservation of the same, and added that its one of the goals the countries can achieve with oil revenues. Against this, he explained, “Now we are going to make so much money on oil. Let’s work together in order to conserve our biodiversity. Pay the people that are [mining]. Pay the people that are looking small scale gold. Pay them off and conserve the biodiversity for the long future to come. This is one of the things that we could do with the money that comes in.”
Cognizant of the imminent threat of climate change, countries across the globe are heightening their response by moving away from fossil fuels and transitioning to cleaner energy. Against this backdrop, Elias was asked whether he felt as though Suriname had a “narrow window” to produce its oil, and whether Staatsolie had any intentions of pumping all of the oil out as soon as possible.
His response was, “No, no, no.”
Elias is of the view that oil will be in the energy mix for decades to come, so there is no need to pump all of it out of the ground as fast as possible. The CEO further indicated that oil will be in the energy mix in the coming 100 years, as he added that the demand for oil will reduce and will observe a peak demand between 2030 and 2050.
Compounded with this, is the light sweet crude being produced by Suriname and Guyana countries, which allow both to be in a fortunate position, Elias said. What he said he is more worried about, however, is what Suriname and Guyana have in place to offset the large reserves of natural gas found in its blocks.
This is why he emphasized that Suriname and Guyana should partner to bring the natural gas to shore. “Suriname and Guyana should partner together and bring it onshore in order to build industries, clean industries. And gas is an awful lot cleaner than oil so they build clean energy producers together for the future of both counties and then we will get a lot of more sustainable development in businesses,” Elias explained.
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