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

As a broad energy company integrated across the oil and gas value chain, we are committed to providing energy that is more affordable, more reliable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. 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, close to 13,000 people help supply our customers with the energy they need through their daily commitment to oil and gas exploration and production. In 2019, our teams produced more than 3 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 onshore and offshore oil and gas projects that we run all over the world.

In addition, as part of our ambition 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 around 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, 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 are committed to contributing to the socio-economic development of our host countries and the people living 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 commitments: Harnessing our community initiatives to create value.

Expertise across the entire LNG chain

The proportion of natural gas in the energy mix is expected to stay high over the next two decades, meeting around a quarter of global energy demand¹. Gas emits half the greenhouse gas of coal in power generation, making it an immediate, practical response to global warming. When converted to liquefied natural gas (LNG), it can be easily transported and delivered as closely as possible to consumer markets. It is then regasified before being fed into the distribution network. Growth in LNG demand is strong and expected to average some 5% per year for the 2015-2040 period.

We are pioneers in LNG, which we have been producing for more than 40 years, and are now the world No. 2 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 trading, shipping and distribution, and use our liquefaction assets and regasification capacities across the world to supply all the main consumption areas.

To continue developing our portfolio and meet our sales target of 50 million metric tons by 2025, we made final investment decisions in three major projects in 2019: Arctic LNG 2 in Russia, Mozambique LNG and NLNG Train 7 in Nigeria. 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 in new regasification terminals and power plants. We are working on floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) projects, which provide quick, cost-effective and flexible access to LNG. We also market natural gas thanks to our acquisitions since 2018 of various suppliers in the Residential sector (Total Direct Energie in France, Lampiris in Belgium and the Spanish portfolio of Energias de Portugal). In addition, we joined forces with the privately owned Adani Group in 2018 to develop a broad energy offering for the Indian market. The alliance covers the importation and regasification of LNG for sale to industrial and corporate customers.

Lastly, we work for cleaner energy by promoting LNG in maritime and ground transportation. For example, we use tankers with engines that are partly fueled by the LNG they transport and we are developing LNG marine fuel and natural gas fuel for vehicles.

Find out more about our expertise in LNG

¹ According to the IEA’s Sustainable Development scenario and Total’s Rupture 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

LONGSTANDING 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 these reserves, 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 our farm-in into the Iara and Lapa blocks under our strategic alliance with Petrobras, taking over the operatorship on Lapa, and the production start-up of Iara 1 in 2019. Our Group 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

Renowned expertise in oil and gas production