Oil

End-to-end oil and gas expertise

Located on a sprawling campus in Pau, southwestern France, the CSTJF encompasses the entire range of scientific expertise as well as the research resources of Total's exploration and production operations. This proximity of experts from every discipline in the exploration and production value chain facilitates interaction between geosciences, drilling, reservoir development, operational safety and environmental protection specialists. And the integration of such diverse capabilities is more vital than ever to redefining feasibility in the oil and gas industry. A multidisciplinary approach, state-of-the-art laboratory resources and powerful computing and telecommunications capabilities rank the CSTJF among the world's leading integrated oil and gas R&D centers.

Day-to-day assistance for subsidiaries

A steady stream of information via voice telephone, videoconferencing and digital data, carried by an extensive private telecommunications network, underscores the strong ties between the center and Total's Exploration & Production (E&P) subsidiaries. One of the main purposes of the engineering center is to provide our teams in the field with the day-to-day technical assistance they need. Its specialists, like its research and computing capabilities, advance the never-ending push to optimize operations across the E&P process. The center provides assistance for the discovery and appraisal of new fields, support for planning drilling strategy and drilling wells, and help with the field operations to boost productivity and pump every last drop of reserves.

An international melting pot

 The constant communications traffic between the CSTJF and Total subsidiaries is buttressed by frequent meetings between operational staff around the world and the center's experts. Every year, these globetrotting experts head off on some 3,500 international assignments to provide on-site, in-person support to their counterparts.

As well, more than a hundred non-French management-level employees - technicians and engineers recruited by Total subsidiaries around the world - join the teams in Pau each year. They come for a period of three or more years, at strategic junctures, in terms of skills acquisition, in their careers, which are shaped by the international mobility inherent in Total's global reach. A cultural melting pot, the CSTJF has nearly 40 different nationalities working at its facilities. This multiplicity of talent is accentuated by the fact that nearly two-thirds of the management-level staff working at the center have spent part of their careers outside France. Lastly, the center's diversity is further enriched by the constant influx of staff from partner national oil companies and representatives of host countries. These visitors receive state-of-the-art training, sometimes through intensive courses lasting just a few days, and in other cases over longer periods of up to two years.

Conquering new frontiers

Because the era of "easy oil" is a thing of the past and the planet's thirst for energy is unquenched, oil operators are now forced to hunt for resources in previously uncharted territory. Opening up these new frontiers is another basic mission of the CSTJF, one of the very few R&D centers in the world capable of redefining feasibility in the oil industry.

As a central player in an extensive network established with French and international research institutions and universities, the center has applied research programs focusing on every field strategic to the future of the energy industry. Examples include extra-heavy, highly viscous oil, which often needs to be heated while still deep in the ground before it can be brought to the surface; producing ultra-deepwater oil, lying in 1,500 meters or more of water; profitably developing very sour and acid gases, which can contain more than 40% carbon dioxide, without aggravating the greenhouse effect; tapping deeply buried reservoirs, lying more than 4,000 meters below the surface; and mastering the technology required for hard-to-extract tight gas reservoirs.

The CSTJF is the nerve center of a global network of five E&P Research & Development centers located close to production sites presenting major technological challenges. 

People safety and environmental protection first

Oil and gas production is a hazardous business. That is why the goal of zero accidents, the starting point for the design of any new project, is an absolute priority at all sites, whether under construction or in operation. The center's safety specialists and Total subsidiaries pool their knowledge and expertise to identify each and every risk and effectively prevent accidents.

Likewise, environmental protection is a core concern at all Total-operated sites. Limiting the impact of our facilities on the air, on water and on biodiversity is an ongoing goal that can only be achieved by developing ever "cleaner" technologies. The CSTJF is assertively committed to tackling climate change by finding efficient new ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions. One of its flagship initiatives is the first French to capture carbon from stack gases and store it in depleted reservoirs. The center is also a key player in developing production processes that conserve water, which is used heavily in every production cycle as it is always produced with oil and gas.

Together, the CSTJF and Total subsidiaries seek to simultaneously promote growth, people safety and environmental protection.