In 2009, for all of its businesses combined, TOTAL transported approximately 210 tons of feedstock (crude oil, natural gas, etc.), “intermediate” products (for example, liquid hydrocarbon such as feedstock for steam cracking units) and “finished" products (fuels, LPG…).

Almost all these transfers involve transportation of hazardous materials such as liquid and liquefied hydrocarbons, as well as petrochemical and chemical products. The hazardous nature of the products transported, their diversity and variety are the most important factors in our “transport risk” analysis.

The other factors taken into consideration come from analyses of our accident records. These analyses reveal that initiatives concerning transportation by land (road, rail) should be a top priority, more specifically road transport in Africa.

“GLOBAL” APPROACHES IMPROVE CONTROL OVER TRANSPORT RISKS

A transversal initiative

One of our priorities is the analysis of accidents and the creation of a "robust" feedback system. To contribute to this, a feedback database covering all the Group’s transport activities was set up in 2009.

Transport via pipeline

Our total network represents more than 23,000 km of pipeline, including 13,000 for natural gas (essentially in France and South America). 8,000 km of pipeline are used to transport hydrocarbons (in Europe and the United States) and nearly 2,000 km for chemicals (ethylene, propylene in particular).

The 6th edition of the Journées Thématiques Pipelines (Pipeline workshops) were held in November 2009, during which presentations and discussions illustrated the skills of the Group’s “pipeliners” in maintaining a high level of safety throughout the network. In particular, they contribute by:

• writing methodology guides and best practices (internal and cross-industry guidance)
• managing the integrity of infrastructures: detecting leaks, making repairs with composites, monitoring pipelines at E&P (checking for corrosion, structural defects…)
• applying new methods produced through recent R&D: new inspection technologies using scrapers equipped with instruments, for example

Transport by road

The share of road accidents in overall transport accidents for the Group (80%), as well as its presence in difficult geographic areas with poor infrastructure and traffic conditions, has led to the adoption of specific measures.

These are based on special plans: PATROM for Africa and the Middle East as of 2002, then POSTAL for Latin America and the Caribbean and more recently AP-TRIP for the Asia-Pacific region.These improvement plans share a common emphasis on the following points:

• preliminary assessment of transport vehicles used by subcontractors
• driver training, in particular by setting up driving schools if need be
• review of vehicle specifications
• regular vehicle inspections

All these operations are organized in partnership with local transport companies.

Moreover, special attention is devoted to road safety through a network of internal correspondents and partnership agreements similar to the one between TOTAL and French road safety authorities. In early 2010, a second convention for Road Safety Correspondents was organized.

Furthermore, the Group is also an active member of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) set up by the World Bank and the World Health Organization. It is designed to help share knowledge and recent developments in terms of road safety and to use this information to promote joint initiatives between States, key economic players and local NGO.
Furthermore, we are preparing a major project with the World Bank designed to secure the most dangerous transnational highways in Africa: Mombasa (Kenya) - Kampala (Uganda), and Douala (Cameroon) - Ndjamena and Bangui (Chad and Central African Republic).

Transport by rail

The Group transports 15 million tons of hazardous goods by rail each year, mainly in Europe where shipping is ensured by national rail companies. With the expansion of the European market and new operators (private companies), it became necessary to define “minimum Health, Safety, Environment & Quality standards" for all operators shipping hazardous materials for the Group.

Transport by river and sea

In terms of risk assessment, a set of selection and acceptance criteria, referred to as "vetting" procedure, have been defined to ensure ships carrying our products or serving our terminals meet our requirements. The Group’s vetting procedure is one of the most stringent in the oil industry, which concerns not only the quality of the ship, but also the competence of the ship owner and crew.

The Group’s fleet scrupulously complies with these strict standards: 100% of its oil tankers have double hulls and the average age for time-charter ships is less than 5 years.
Total’s vetting procedure also includes a competence matrix for the ship’s officers. It defines minimal requirements in terms of seniority in the firm, years in their current position and the number of years of experience on oil tankers of the key officers on board.

A map of the river and sea routes used to ship all of the Group's products (hydrocarbons, LPG, LNG, chemicals, fertilizer, coal) has been drawn up. It provides a clear understanding of flows for each region, product family, shipping mode and conditions and a global view that enables more effective risk assessment.