Oil and Gas Exploration & Production: Total's Areas of Expertise

As a major energy player and an integrated operator across the entire oil and gas value chain, we aim to produce affordable, reliable and clean energy. To put this ambition into practice and become the responsible energy major in today's complex environment, we rely on our key strengths, working every day to develop a diversified portfolio and focusing particularly on our expertise in deep offshore production and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

A global, diversified and balanced oil and gas portfolio

At Total, around 13,000 people in some 50 countries help supply our customers with the energy they need through their commitment every day to oil and gas exploration and production. In 2018, our teams produced 2.8 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

We operate in all the main oil and gas production regions, from Asia to Africa, Russia, the Middle East, the United States and the North Sea. We leverage cutting-edge technologies for the complex oil and gas projects – onshore, offshore, conventional and unconventional – that we run all over the world.

In addition, as part of our aim to prepare the future of energy, we are renewing our portfolio by developing our exploration strategy. Today, we have a solid, diversified portfolio of proven and probable reserves¹ representing 20 years of reserve life at constant production levels. To steer exploration operations toward the most promising areas, we capitalize on 3D and 4D modeling technologies, for example, which help us assess the potential of reservoirs as accurately as possible and more effectively plan ahead for seismic risks.

¹Proven reserves of oil and gas are reserves that have been estimated with reasonable certainty, since fields have already been discovered and their potential has been assessed. Probable reserves are estimated based on proven reserves and the probability of finding more elsewhere. Proven and probable reserves correspond to the sum of proven reserves and probable reserves.

Creating value for our stakeholders in all our host countries

As an oil and gas major, we have a responsibility toward our host countries and the communities that live near our facilities. That is why we engage in dialogue with our stakeholders well before our projects are launched, and take a comprehensive and integrated approach to local development in our operations.

Find out more about our community commitment: Harnessing our community commitment to create value.

Expertise across the entire LNG chain

Gas is expected to overtake oil in the global energy mix by 2040, coming in far ahead of coal¹. Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be particularly high, estimated at 5% per year for the 2018-2030 period. LNG offers a number of advantages that position it as an energy for the future. A flexible resource, it can be transported by ship over long distances from liquefaction plants to regasification terminals in order to supply areas located far away from production centers.

We are pioneers in LNG, which we have been producing for more than 40 years, and are now a world leader in this resource. In fact, it is a key part of our strategy. We operate across the entire LNG value chain, from production and processing to transportation and distribution, and, thanks to our liquefaction plants and regasification terminals all over the world, we are able to supply all consumption areas.

To develop our portfolio, we invest in all LNG production areas and main markets. Our many supply sources and delivery points around the world mean that we can guarantee our customers flexibility and maximum competitiveness.

Further down the supply chain, to bring LNG to new markets, we are prepared to invest where needed in new regasification terminals and power plants. We are currently working on floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) projects, which provide quick, cost-effective and flexible access to LNG. In addition, we are steadily increasing our investments in the marketing of natural gas through an acquisition strategy targeting providers in the Residential (Total Direct Energie) and Transportation (PitPoint B.V.) sectors.

Lastly, we are committed to providing cleaner energy. For example, we are building LNG tankers with engines that are partly fueled by the LNG they transport.

Find out more about our expertise in LNG

¹According to the IEA's Sustainable Development scenario.

Yamal LNG, the gas that came in from the cold

Yamal - LNG tanker Christophe de Margerie

Yamal LNG is one of the most complex LNG projects in the world, as well as one of the most competitive, as it leverages the immense onshore gas resources of Russia's Yamal Peninsula.

Located above the polar circle in the estuary of the Ob River, Yamal LNG aims to tap natural gas reserves totaling more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent to supply markets in Europe and Asia.

Find out more about the Yamal LNG project

Cutting-edge expertise in deep offshore

"Deep offshore" refers to oil and gas situated more than 500 meters underwater.

Deep offshore is a strategic business, and remains a major growth driver for Total. To develop it, we are applying the diverse skill set we have acquired over close to 20 years. We are exploring and developing fields located in the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Guinea and the North Sea in complex and increasingly diverse environments, dealing with such challenges as different natures of fluids, varying thermodynamic conditions, and deposit sizes ranging from small satellites to giant fields. Our launches in 2018 and 2019 included two major deep offshore projects in Africa: Kaombo and Egina.

Since 2012, we have been increasing our presence in Brazil, home to the largest recently discovered offshore deposits. These resources have great potential for low-cost development, which is in line with our strategy. This was reflected in a series of developments: the Libra field was put in production at the end of 2017 and we invested the Iara and Lapa concessions, under our Strategic Alliance with Petrobras. Our Group also took the operatorship in the Lapa project, and thus became the first major to operate a pre-salt producing field in Brazil.

Already a top-tier operator, Total has set itself a number of technical priorities to strengthen its leadership in deep offshore oil and gas. These include reducing our development and operating costs, fine-tuning innovative production and drilling technologies for use in ultra-deep offshore fields (1,500 meters and deeper), and managing industrial risks and our impact on the environment.

Find out more about our expertise in deep offshore

Kaombo: an innovative ultra-deep offshore project in Angola

Located off the coast of Angola, Kaombo is an ultra-deep offshore project posing many complex development challenges. With estimated oil reserves of more than 650 million barrels, at water depths of up to 1,950 meters, the offshore project in Angola is one of Total’s greatest technical feats ever.

Find out more about the Kaombo project

A renowed expertise in oil and gas production