Oil

Trading, buying, selling and shipping oil and meeting the needs of refineries are the primary missions of Total's Trading & Shipping business. Its professional specialties and teams play an essential role: matching oil and petroleum product supply with demand, day in and day out, on a global scale.

Total, a specialist and leading trader and shipper in world oil markets

Total Trading & Shipping is a leading trader in all major global organized and over-the-counter oil markets, including physical markets for crude oil and petroleum products and paper markets for futures, derivatives and other options.

Our trading specialists deal in the markets every day, buying and selling most grades of crude oil and nearly all refined products, such as fuel oil, gasoline and diesel.

Total Trading comprises a team of 550 professionals in dedicated subsidiaries and offices - the three biggest of which are based in Geneva, Houston and Singapore - that conduct business in some 120 countries, all time zones and every strategic sector of oil markets.

Covering our own needs and offering superior service to customers

The primary vocation of Trading & Shipping is to meet our own needs, by selling our crude oil production for the highest negotiable price, supplying our refineries on the best financial terms, importing and exporting petroleum products to align supply to local demand, and selecting and chartering safety-vetted tankers to transport cargo to its destination without mishap. Besides this constant push for optimization, Trading is also responsible for managing risks, in particular for limiting our exposure to sometimes extreme - unusually so in 2008- price fluctuations, over the space of a month, a week or even day to day.

Trading and risk management are two areas in which Total has acquired widely acknowledged expertise, which we apply on behalf of a large number of partners and external customers.

Our trading teams have forged close, long-term relationships with a huge network of customers and suppliers worldwide, including national and international oil companies and all producers, refiners, traders, brokers, distributors and end users. As a result, they have access to widely diversified sources of supply and substantial resources, in addition to the oil refined for us.

Our trading expertise is rooted in knowing exactly what refineries and industrial customers need, a thorough grasp of energy fundamentals and each market's specific characteristics, and an ability to analyze events in real time. These traits are matched by impressive responsiveness, thanks to a global network of trading subsidiaries and offices.

Shipping: strict safety requirements

Working in tight liaison with Trading, Shipping arranges transportation of both crude oil and petroleum products and handles all related services.

Because shipping oil and petroleum products by sea requires extreme vigilance, we apply a very strict vetting policy for vessels.

On December 31, 2008, our time-chartered fleet - tankers under medium- and long-term charter parties - comprised 62 double-hulled vessels, of which six dedicated to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Their average age is about five years, one of the lowest in the industry. This fleet of recent, state-of-the-art vessels conforming to the highest standards fulfills our shipping needs while offering superior safety and security.

Our vetting policy applies equally to ships carrying cargo owned by Total companies or simply calling at Total-operated oil terminals and to the vessels we charter on a spot basis or for longer periods.

It is Total policy not to use tankers more than 20 years old.

We are also preparing for the effective date of the European Union's third package of directives to strengthen maritime safety. The directives ban vessels that do not meet international standards from E.U. waters, introduce strengthened vetting, require all shipowners to provide proof of insurance, and harmonize accident investigation procedures.