company:total sa

South Africa’s Landmark Oil Find Opens Prospect of Drilling Rush - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/total-discovery-opens-new-petroleum-province-off-south-africa

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South Africa’s first deep-water discovery, reported Thursday by French oil major Total SA, may prompt a rush of activity offshore by competitors as the country works to cut its reliance on imported fuels.

The Brulpadda find, estimated at about 1 billion barrels by Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne, could be enough to supply South Africa’s refineries for almost four years. That’s a boon for a country that has always been short of oil and is running out of its scant domestic supply of gas.
[…]
The field of primarily gas-condensate — a light liquid hydrocarbon — was discovered about 175 kilometers (109 miles) off the country’s southern coast in the Outeniqua Basin. The area, where Exxon Mobil Corp. and Eni SpA also hold stakes, may now draw further interest, especially since South Africa is due to introduce new legislation later this year aimed at spurring exploration.

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Les deux cartes proviennent de cet article du 29/01/2019
South Africa could be days away from a massive new deepsea energy find
▻https://www.businessinsider.co.za/totals-brulpadda-find-in-south-africa-2019-1

Hundreds of Norway oil workers go on strike, Shell shuts Knarr field | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-oil-wages/wage-talks-with-norway-oil-drilling-workers-go-into-overtime-strike-threat-

Hundreds of workers on Norwegian offshore oil and gas rigs went on strike on Tuesday after rejecting a proposed wage deal, leading to the shutdown of one Shell-operated field and helping send Brent crude prices higher.

One union said hundreds more workers would join the strike on Sunday if an agreement over union demands for a wage increase and pension rights was not reached.

Royal Dutch Shell said that due to the strike it was temporarily closing production at its Knarr field, which has a daily output of 23,900 barrels of mostly oil, but also natural gas liquids and natural gas.

Shutting the field, whose owners are Idemitsu, Wintershall and DEA, could take up to 36 hours, it said.

Norway is Western Europe’s biggest oil producer. The disruption added to a rise in global oil supply outages and helped push Brent crude up 1.2 percent to $79.03 per barrel.

What’s at Stake for Oil as Trump Appoints Another Iran Hawk? - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-23/what-s-at-stake-for-oil-as-trump-appoints-another-iran-hawk

Iran is trying to attract more than $100 billion from international oil companies to boost crude and condensate output by about 25 percent to more than 5 million barrels a day. Without new investment from international companies production will stagnate.

Trump’s disdain for the nuclear deal has already deterred investors from the country, the third-biggest producer in OPEC. Of the Western energy majors, only France’s Total SA has returned, and its gas venture is proceeding slowly. Iranian officials are already complaining that western oil companies are too cautious to return to the country and there are signs that Russian companies are stepping in to fill the vacuum.

Total has the biggest financial stake of any international energy major, having pledged to invest $1 billion in the first phase of an offshore natural gas project. Overall investment in the project could reach $5 billion, and while the company is determined to press ahead, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne has promised to review the legal consequences of any new U.S. restrictions.
[…]
Three years ago, in a New York Times op-ed titled “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran,” Bolton argued that the only way to prevent Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons was a military strike. He cited Israel’s preemptive strike in 1981 on Saddam Hussein’s Osirak reactor as an example of effective action.

Bolton downplayed the significance of his past public statements in an interview with Fox News shortly after the appointment was announced, saying he would defer to the president’s judgment.

“I’ve never been shy about what my views are,” Bolton said. But, he added, that “now is behind me, at least effective April 9, and the important thing is what the president says and what advice I give him.”

Bolton’s appointment has lots of implications beyond just Iran, Ian Bremmer, president of consultant Eurasia Group, said on Twitter. It also makes Trump’s scheduled talks with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un riskier, he said.

Thursday was “probably the worst/biggest single day for geopolitical risk since I started Eurasia Group in 1998,” Bremmer said on Twitter.

Putin Blesses Multibillion-Dollar Bet on Russia Competing in LNG - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/putin-blesses-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-russia-competing-in-lng

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As Russia’s President Vladimir Putin oversees the official start of a $27 billion liquefied natural gas plant in the snow-covered tundra of northern Siberia, his mind may wander to its biggest competitor more than 3,000 miles away in Qatar.

While the two regions may have vastly different climates, Putin is determined to make Russia’s Arctic competitive in the fuel that turned Qatar into the richest nation per capita. On Friday, he witnessed the loading of the first icebreaking tanker from the Yamal LNG plant, built on time despite the harsh climate and in defiance of U.S. sanctions targeting its biggest shareholder.

Operator Novatek PJSC earlier this week announced the start of production at Yamal LNG, in which Total SA, China National Petroleum Corp. and China’s Silk Road Fund also hold stakes. The operator of the world’s coldest LNG plant has been under U.S. sanctions imposed three years ago as Russia’s relations with the U.S. soured.

“This is for sure a complicated project,” Putin said at a ceremony attended by the project partners and the energy minister of Saudi Arabia. “But those who started this project took a risk, and the risk was justified, and they succeeded.”

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Trump Passes Iran Nuclear Deal Back to Congress | OilPrice.com
▻http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Trump-Passes-Iran-Nuclear-Deal-Back-to-Congress.html

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Throughout, Total SA has taken the challenge head on. Earlier this month, the French oil giant shrugged off the US sanctions threat, with Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne telling media, “We knew when we signed that it will not be an easy road. But I prefer to have a problem to solve and to have the opportunity rather than having not signed [and] no opportunities.”

Now that the dust is settling on the Iran nuclear deal, and it is becoming clearer that this move was a compromise and the deal is not being abandoned outright, European companies may be feeling less pressure to come up with a contingency plan.

OPEC’s LNG Giant Keeps Exporting Gas and Oil as Saudis Cut Ties - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-05/saudi-led-isolation-of-lng-giant-doesn-t-stop-gas-or-oil-exports

Qatar, the world’s biggest seller of liquefied natural gas, can still access shipping routes to deliver oil and gas to buyers after Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states barred the emirate from exporting through their territorial waters.

State producer Qatargas told Japan’s Jera Co. that it would keep supplying LNG as normal in spite of the Saudi-led severing of diplomatic ties with Qatar, Jera spokesman Atsuo Sawaki said by phone. Jera is Japan’s biggest buyer of Qatari LNG under long-term contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The escalation of tensions in the energy-rich Persian Gulf probably won’t disrupt LNG supplies to Qatar’s main customers in Asia, according to Robin Mills, head of Dubai-based consultant Qamar Energy. “In principle Qatar should still be able to export via its own waters, Iran and Oman,” Mills said.
[…]
Aside from sending LNG and oil by ship, Qatar exports natural gas through a pipeline operated by Dolphin Energy, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co., Total SA and Occidental Petroleum Corp. The link supplies gas to the U.A.E. and Oman and can send 3.2 billion cubic feet per day, though it only uses about two-thirds of that capacity.

Gas continues to flow normally through the Dolphin pipeline to the U.A.E. and Oman, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. There is no sign that supplies will be cut, they said, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

A potential shutdown of the pipeline would cause a “severe problem” in the U.A.E. as demand for electricity peaks in the summer, Mills said. But he played down the likelihood that either country would halt supplies due to the hardship this would cause the U.A.E. and the damage it would inflict on Qatar’s reputation as a reliable energy provider.

#nuit_torride

Mothballing the World’s Fanciest Oil Rigs Is a Massive Gamble - Bloomberg
▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-19/at-500-million-a-pop-it-s-an-oil-gamble-that-has-no-precedent

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In a far corner of the Caribbean Sea, one of those idyllic spots touched most days by little more than a fisherman chasing blue marlin, billions of dollars worth of the world’s finest oil equipment bobs quietly in the water.

They are high-tech, deepwater drillships — big, hulking things with giant rigs that tower high above the deck. They’re packed tight in a cluster, nine of them in all. The engines are off. The 20-ton anchors are down. The crews are gone. For months now, they’ve been parked here, 12 miles off the coast of Trinidad & Tobago, waiting for the global oil market to recover.

The ships are owned by a company called Transocean Ltd., the biggest offshore-rig operator in the world. And while the decision to idle a chunk of its fleet would seem logical enough given the collapse in oil drilling activity, Transocean is in truth taking an enormous, and unprecedented, risk. No one, it turns out, had ever shut off these ships before. In the two decades since the newest models hit the market, there never had really been a need to. And no one can tell you, with any certainty or precision, what will happen when they flip the switch back on.
[…]
Nearly half of the world’s available floating rigs are out of work today, and most observers expect that number will climb further. Not only are the drillship operators’ customers — the likes of ConocoPhillips and Total SA — slashing spending in high-cost offshore areas and canceling work contracts early, but new rigs that were ordered in recent years keep rolling out of shipyards. Bloomberg Intelligence estimates as much as $56 billion worth of offshore rigs, capable of drilling in everything from shallow water to oceans more than two miles deep, are still under construction.

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#sous_cocon

Iranian Crude - European To Import 300,000+ Barrels A Day - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/iranian-crude-european-to-import-300000-barrels-a-day

Iran will start sending 300,000 barrels a day of crude to Europe, 54 percent of the total it shipped before authorities on the continent put an embargo in place.

Paris-based Total SA has agreed to buy about 160,000 barrels a day starting on Feb. 16, the ministry of oil’s Shana website reported, citing Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh. The company also expressed interest in developing the South Azadegan oil field in western Iran near the border with Iraq and in a liquid natural gas project, Shana reported. Total asked for the necessary information to submit a proposal for the LNG plant.

Bon, ce n’est pas au meilleur moment, mais on peut se dire que les cours actuels fort bas avaient déjà anticipé la reprise des exportations iraniennes.

French president’s visit hints at stronger business ties | JPost |
▻http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/French-presidents-visit-hints-at-stronger-business-ties-332050

Among the delegations members are representatives of the Orange SA telecom company, the Total SA petroleum company, defense company Thales, and SNCF, France’s state-owned railway company.