Suriname’s president has announced a program of “royalties for everyone” as the South American nation plans for a boon from recently discovered oil and gas reserves.

Suriname and its neighbor Guyana expect to make billions in the years to come from rich offshore crude deposits. Earlier this month, Guyana announced all adult citizens living at home and abroad would received a payout of around £370 as part of an effort to redistribute its oil wealth.

Experts have said Suriname – a country of 600,000 people – stands to make about $10bn in the next 10 to 20 years.

Almost one in five Surinamese people today live in poverty, according to World Bank figures. Annual GDP is about $3.4bn.

Last month, French oil group Total announced a $10.5bn project to exploit an oil field off the coast of Suriname with a capacity of producing 220,000 barrels per day.

Production should start in 2028.

On Monday, President Chan Santokhi said royalties will be paid “so that every Surinamese can benefit and profit from oil and gas”.

Each citizen would receive an amount of $750 in a savings account, with an annual interest rate of seven percent, he said in an Independence Day address.

“Everyone shall benefit from this opportunity and no one will be left behind,” the president vowed. “You are co-owners of the oil incomes.”

Santokhi had previously told AFP his country was “quite aware of the oil curse”, also known as “Dutch disease”, which had befallen other resource-rich countries such as Venezuela, Angola and Algeria that were unable to turn oil wealth into economic success.

Norway became an exception to the “curse” by building up a sovereign wealth fund.

Suriname has set up a similar fund in expectation of the oil cash influx.

With reporting by Agence France-Presse

This article was amended on 26 November 2024. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Guyana as a former Dutch colony.