Suriname may be one of the smallest countries in Latin America, with a population of fewer than 600,000 people, but off its coast lie potentially significant oil and gas deposits that could alter the country’s future.

Two large discoveries in recent months by US oil exploration and production company Apache Corporation and French oil major Total have offered hopes for an offshore bonanza for the former Dutch colony. The country is looking to mirror its neighbour Guyana, where ExxonMobil recently started production from deepwater oil blocks.

Suriname currently produces just 16,000 barrels a day from onshore fields. But the US government estimates that the Guyana-Suriname basin may contain nearly 14bn barrels of oil — in line with the resources of Argentina — and more than 32tn cubic feet of natural gas.