• Wednesday, 16 May, 2012

Total near plateau at Pazflor FPSO

Producing Pazflor: French oil major says its FPSO has reached 203,000 barrels per day

FAIRMOUNT MARINE

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Bill Lehane , Bill Lehane , Bill Lehane , Bill Lehane

 10 February 2012 16:37 GMT

French oil giant Total has revealed its mammoth Pazflor floater in Angola is now yielding more than 200,000 barrels per day, with its chief executive joking that the company’s burgeoning operations in the southern African state were “the Brazil of Angola”.

Exploration and production president Yves-Louis Darricarrere told a London briefing held on Friday after the company released its yearly results that bringing the Pazflor floating production, storage and offloading vessel online was “exactly on track”.

“We reached 203,000 barrels a day just a few days ago so we have only another 17,000 barrels per day to reach the plateau”, Darricarrere said, adding the top rate would likely be achieved sometime later this year.

At the same briefing, chief executive Christophe de Margerie vowed that Total would adopt a strategy of “new dynamism” in 2012 to lead its development with more aggressive exploration, stronger production, more cash flow for start-ups, restructuring downstream to make it more profitable and better portfolio management.

The player is planning to ramp up exploration spending by 20% to $2.5 billion as part of this strategy, which will see the company drill 65 wells in 2012 and 2013, up from last year’s 48.

Asked about the company's exploration performance in 2011, De Margerie cited the player's finds in Azerbaijan, French Guiana and Bolivia before adding: “We may not be in Brazil, but we are in Brazil in Angola.”

De Margerie said that the player was “a lot more confident” meanwhile on progress in starting up the long-stalled giant Shtokman project after getting an extension to its licence entitlement last month.

“The Russians are, more than ever, extremely willing to get this gas,” de Margerie said.

A final investment decision on the first phase of the giant project – now estimated to cost more than $20 billion – has recently been postponed until at least April as the foreign partners hold out for tax breaks from the Russian government that they claim are necessary to make it commercially viable.

Asked what kind of framework development the company was planning to take with its discovery in French Guiana, Darricarrere joked: “I will not tell you that because I don’t want to give anyone good ideas.”

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