Government: what it means for Suriname's oil economy.
Wimpel spoke with a Surinamese entrepreneur who has been building a logistics and supply business in Paramaribo since 2022. He asked not to be identified by name. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What made you start when you did?
I was working at a multinational in the Netherlands — supply chain, regional operations. I saw what was happening in Suriname from the news, from conversations with family. Block 58 was getting close to sanction. I'd read what happened in Guyana. I thought: if I wait until it's obvious, it will be too late for me to get a meaningful position. So I came back.
What did you find when you got here?
More chaos than I expected, honestly. I thought: there's a framework, there's Staatsolie's supplier registration, there's the local content policy, so there must be some structure. And there is — on paper. In practice, the information gaps are enormous. Who is getting which contracts? Who are the actual decision-makers at the prime contractors? Nobody publishes this. You learn it through relationships, through showing up at the right places.
You said you're not waiting for the government. What does that mean?
I mean exactly that. There are entrepreneurs here who are waiting for the government to build the enabling environment before they invest. They want the roads, the permits, the capital market, the bank credit — all sorted before they move. And I understand the instinct. But that enabling environment is going to arrive three years after the money is already distributed. If you're waiting for the government, you're already too late.
What I'm doing is building despite the gaps. My logistics operation is running out of a facility that's not ideal. The roads are what they are. The permits took eight months when they should have taken six weeks. But we're running, we have contracts, we have a track record. When the conditions improve, we're positioned. If I'd waited for the conditions to be right, I'd still be waiting.
What's your biggest operational challenge right now?
Foreign currency. Everything in the oil sector trades in dollars. My costs for imported equipment are in dollars. But my SRD cash from local transactions is hard to convert at a rate that works. The Central Bank's rules make sense from a macro perspective, but at the business level they create real cash flow problems. I'm managing it, but it's a constraint I spend more time on than I should.
What advice would you give someone considering making the same move?
Come for the right reasons. If you're coming because you read that Suriname is the next Guyana and you think money will be easy, you'll leave disappointed in eighteen months. The opportunity is real but it requires genuine work, genuine patience, and genuine relationships with people who understand this market. Don't show up with a PowerPoint about what you're going to do. Show up ready to do the work.
And register on the local content supplier database immediately. Even if you don't have contracts yet. The track record starts from when you register.
Sources & further reading
Government — primary source: Staatsolie. Related Wimpel coverage: Suriname Does Not Have a Resource Problem. It Has a Positioning Problem..