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Tag: total

  • Total begins production from Dalia field

    Total begins production from Dalia field

    Total said it has started production from Dalia Phase 1A, a new development on the offshore operated Block 17, located 83 miles off the coast of Angola.

    The Dalia Phase 1A project involves the drilling of seven infill wells tied back to the Dalia Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit. The project will develop additional reserves of 51 million barrels and will contribute 30,000 barrels per day to the Block’s production, according to Total.

    Total President Exploration & Production, Arnaud Breuillac, said: “The Dalia FPSO came on stream nearly nine years ago and with the addition of Phase 1A will still produce around 200,000 barrels per day. It is the latest milestone in the success story of Block 17, Total’s most prolific licence with cumulative production reaching two billion barrels in May 2015. Dalia Phase 1A demonstrates Total’s commitment to maximising value through the optimal use of existing facilities. These types of profitable satellite tie-back developments play an important role in maintaining production levels and generating additional free cash flow for the group.”

    Total operates Block 17 with a 40 per cent interest alongside Statoil, which holds a 23.33 per cent interest, Esso Exploration Angola Block 17 Limited, which holds a 20 per cent interest, and BP Exploration Angola Limited, which holds a 16.67 per cent interest.

    Through Blocks 17, 0 and 14, Total’s equity production reached 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2014. The company’s operated production exceeded 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2015, making it Angola’s leading oil operator.

  • Total urges communities to maintain facilities

    Total urges communities to maintain facilities

    Communities in Rivers State have been urged to maintain the facilities provided for them by oil companies.

    The Manager, Community Affairs of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria (TEPNG), Mr Okechukwu Obara gave the advice yesterday during the hand-over of 10 stalls donated to Elele-Alimini Community in Emohua Local Government Area and 10 boreholes donated to Elele-Okinali Community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.

    Obara, who advised them to always nominate projects that would have direct impact on people’s lives, said the gesture was in line with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the company and its memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its host communities.

  • Total Nigeria seeks new ways to boost growth

    •Shareholders get N3.8b dividends

    Total Nigeria Plc plans to step up its business diversification programme by investing further in solar power business while consolidating the safety and efficiency of the current business.

    Chairman, Total Nigeria Plc, Momar Nguer, told shareholders yesterday at the annual general meeting of the company in Lagos that Total Nigeria is constantly seeking new ways to expand its offerings and the company is currently implementing strategies to ensure that the company remains brand of reference and leading energy solutions provider.

    “We plan to increase the number of our solar powered stations this year by eight additional stations and will be introducing our offer of solar home system. The solar home system is a solar power driven energy solution for homes,” Nguer said.

    He said the company would be seeking to align its business and structures with the dictates of the environment in which it operates and through all these, create sustainable value for all the shareholders.

    Shareholders yesterday approved distribution of additional final dividend of N3.1 billion, bringing the company’s total dividend payout for the 2014 business year to N3.78 billion. The company had interim dividend of N679 million. Shareholders will receive a final dividend per share of N9, in addition to earlier interim dividend per share of N2, bringing total dividend per share to N11.

    Nguer said the 2014 business year was a year in which the company experienced several challenges and difficulties which affected her performance and operating results.

    Total Nigeria’s turnover increased slightly from N238.2 billion in 2013 to N240.6 billion. Profit before tax decreased from N8.1 billion to N5.5 billion. Profit after tax reduced by 17 per cent from N5.3 billion to N4.4 billion.

    He noted that interest expense was N2.6 billion, which was 32 per cent higher than the previous year mainly due to huge interests on borrowing as a result of unpaid sums under the Petroleum Subsidy Fund.

    Managing Director, Total Nigeria, Alexis Vovk, assured of better days ahead, saying that the board would continue to do things solely in the interest of the shareholders.

    Shareholders who spoke at the meeting commended the performance of the company. Shareholders who spoke at the meeting included Sir. Sunny Nwosu, National Coordinator, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN) and Shehu Mikail, National President, Constance Shareholders Association of Nigeria.

  • Court bars Attorney-General NAPIMS, Total, others from implementing oil field contract

    Court bars Attorney-General NAPIMS, Total, others from implementing oil field contract

    A Federal High Court  in Lagos has restrained  Attorney-General of the Federation, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, (NAPIMS) Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board, (NCDMB),  Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited (SHINL), and Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd, and their agents from implementing the  Floating Production Storage and Offloading Unit (FPSO) contract. The FPSO is in the Egina Field within OML130. The order will subsist  pending the determination of the substantive suit.

    The court also restrained the defendants and their agents from implementing the  contract either

    Justice Okon Abang gave the order after listening to the opposing counsel.

    In an affidavit sworn to by the plaintiff, Mr John Iyene Owubokiri, had averred that the scope of Egina FPSO oil field which is expected to produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day as stated by SHINL is expected to create 50,000 jobs, saying this is strategic to the future.

    Owubokiri averred  that there are established guidelines by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for tendering and awarding of fabrication projects in the oil and gas industry. These guidelines were not complied with in the award of the Egina FPSO to Samsung,he alleged, adding that there were breaches of extant laws in the contract award.  The defendants breached provisions of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD)Act 2010 and relevant laws guiding the fiscal regime of the oil and gas industry.

    The NOGICD Act stipulates that NCAMB should supervice, coordinate, monitor and implement  the local content plan in the oil and gas industry. It shall also approves advertisement, qualification criteria, technical bid document, technical evaluation criteria and the proposed bidders list in bids for project in excess of $1 million. The Egina FPSO contract is worth $3,143,499,498.

    Owubokiri  claimed that Total Upstream covert launch by  its call tender without approval of technical stage and commercial template broke the law, standard practice and the established process for tendering in the oil and gas industry.

    The establishment of a fabrication yard in Bayelsa State was part of the local content plan  by Samsung to get the award  contract,  he averred, adding  that this could have created thousands of job, enhanced transfer of technology and skill acquisition for Nigerians.

    But, after the contract award,  Samsung, he claimed, abandoned the establishment of the fabrication yard  and now plans to carry out in South Korea the fabrication work meant to be done in Bayelsa  to the detriment of the economy.

    In a counter-affidavit,  a lawyer, Mr Olajide Oyewole, on behalf of Samsung  while denying some of the plaintiff’s averments  deposed that Owobokiri’s  rights have not been infringed.  ‘’He has not shown that he has suffered any special damage peculiar to himself apart from the public,’’ Oye-wole claimed, urging  the court not to grant the plaintiff’s application.

    Total Upstream,  in an affidavit sworn to by its lawyer, Chidiebere Ejiofor, urged the court to dismiss the plaintiff’s application because his client is challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear  the suit.  The court ought to hear and determine the preliminary objection first, before entertaining any further motion of the plaintiff, he said.

    Attorney General of the Federation, NAPIMS and MCDMB did not file any response.

    Justice  Abang, in his ruling  adjourning till Thursday, and restrained  the defendants and their agents from implementing the  contract.

  • Slok commiserates with Total

    Slok commiserates with Total

    Slok Group has commiserated with the management and workers of French oil major, Total, on the death of their Chief Executive Officer, Christophe de Margerie.

    Margerie died on Monday when a private jet he was travelling in crashed near Moscow.

    Slok Managing Director Firas Abboud, in a condolence message, acknowledged the outstanding performance and contributions of de Margerie to the oil and gas industry globally.

    He said: “It is with a heavy heart and pain that I write on behalf of the management and workers of Slok Group to express our heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathy to the Total family on the death of its Chief Executive Officer, Christophe de Margerie.”

  • Total to cut costs, sell assets

    EUROPE’S second biggest oilfirm Total plans to cut costs and sell more assets after lowering its forecasts for growth in production.

    Output may be 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day (bpd) next year, short of the prior 2.6 million-barrel target, and 2.8 million in 2017, down from three million, it said in a statement.

    “We are more confident” in reaching these production goals because most new projects are operated by the company, Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere said in London at the company’s annual investor day.

    The Paris-based producer retained its 2017 cash-flow goal, pledging to keep selling assets and cutting operating costs to save $2 billion a year. It will overhaul exploration strategy.

    Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie has battled to raise output as fast as planned after leaks shut the Caspian Sea Kashagan project and an Abu Dhabi concession ended. He has pledged to cut investment and curb costs after spending billions on new projects and drilling “high risk” exploration wells.

    Investment will be cut to $25 billion in 2017 from $26 billion this year and a peak of $28 billion last year, Total said.

    Completion of some of Total’s projects has slipped, with output at Laggan-Tormore off the Shetland Islands expected in the first quarter rather than later this year after completion of onshore plant was hit by labor strife and winter weather. It is also no longer counting on output from Yamal LNG in 2017.

  • ‘Lack of capacity bane of local content devt,

    The divestments of oil and gas assets from Nigeria by some international oil companies (IOCs) may have affected indigenous operators who have long been clamouring for increased participation in the lucrative oil and gas industry.

    The local operators may not hold their own, much less fill the gap left by the IOCs due to lack of capacity and expertise, an oil and gas expert, Oliver Mordi, has said.

    He told The Nation in Lagos that though, continued divestments by the IOCs would encourage indigenous participation in the industry, the problem is that local operators do not have the competence to handle highly technical jobs.

    According to him, most of the technical operations of the IOCs are being handled by expatriates, while only a few Nigerians are into exploration.

    There has been a rash of divestment, mostly from onshore or swamp fields, by some IOCs. For instance, since 2010, when Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) commenced divestment in Nigeria, others, such as Total and Agip Oil, which are partners to the Anglo-Dutch oil company  followed suit.

    The United States’s oil firm, Conoco Phillips, also disposed its assets to indigenous oil company, Oando Plc. Same for Brazilian oil company, Petrobras.

    The decision of the IOCs to divest, according to watchers of the industry, is as a result of factors ranging from operational and security difficulties of operating onshore the Niger Delta region, portfolio rationalisation to regulatory uncertainties from non-passage of the hotly debated oil industry bill, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Iincessant crises between the host communities and the oil companies are said to have prompted the divestment for deep water prospect where there are fewer crises and less financial expenses on conflict resolution.

    However, the oil companies explain that they sold the assets in order to help grow the country’s petroleum sector. For instance, Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director of SPDC, said part of the reasons for divestment of his company’s assets was a deliberate measure to encourage indigenous participation in the upstream oil and gas industry. Hear him: “We want to create a new set of indigenous players in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry within the next 10 to 20 years from now, while the IOCs concentrate on more difficult issues and also allow us focus on material oil and gas fields.”

    But Mordi argues that as much as asset divestment by IOCs would encourage indigenous participation, lack of capacity and expertise by local operators may throw spanner into the works. He told The Nation that except a few indigenous operators such as Femi Otedola, Chief Executive Officer of Forte Oil Plc, Mike Adenuga, Chairman of Conoil, and Aliko Dangote, who has indicated interest to throw his hat in the oil ring, most local operators do not have the financial and technical capacity to hold their own in the industry.

    While attributing the increasing spate of divestments by IOCs to the fact that “the political economy of the operating environment was no longer conducive for the IOCs,” he said the PIB, when successfully passed, would encourage the growth of indigenous companies in the oil & gas industry. “The oil industry bill will support and favour an all inclusive local participation at all levels and in all strata of the industry,” he said.

  • Total moves to Ofon field OML 102

    Total moves to Ofon field OML 102

    The Ofon Phase 2 Process Platform (OFP2) is on its way to the Ofon field located in the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 102, 50km off the coast of Nigeria in 40m water depth.

    The field is owned by Total E&P Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) 40 per cent in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) 60 per cent.

    According to a statement, the sail-away for the OFP2 was performed at the Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) yard in Ulsan, South Korea on Friday, November 22 by the Deputy Head of Mission of the Nigerian Embassy in Korea, Ambassador Salihu Ahmed and his wife Michelle, Deputy Managing Director, TEPNG Port Harcourt District, Mr. Nicolas Brunet, Executive Director, TEPNG Port Harcourt District, Mr. Patrick NGENE, TEPNG OFON 2 P roject General Manager, Mr. Emmanuel Hyest, TEPNG OFON 2 Company Representative in Ulsan, Mr. Jean-Marc Pecquois and the Senior Executive vice President and Chief Operating Officer, HHI, Mr. J. D. Kim. The ceremony was also witnessed by other officials from Total, NAPIMS, DPR and HHI.

    Ambassador Ahmed said: “The successful completion of this platform is a further demonstration of the excellent relationship between Nigeria and the Republic of Korea.”

  • Analysts set N198 fair value for Total Nigeria

    Total Nigeria Plc’s share price could rise by about 28 per cent to attain a fair value of N197.79 per share, analysts have said.

    Analysts at Morgan Capital Group, an investment and financial services group, in their latest equity valuation report stated that Total Nigeria, which opened yesterday at N155, was substantially undervalued.

    According to analysts, Total Nigeria is currently trading at a 27.60 per cent discount to its estimated fair value of N197.79, with a 12-month investment horizon.

    “Our fair value computation is based on our financial performance expectation for full-year 2013. We placed a positive outlook on the stock because of the upside potential of the stock from current price to our fair value estimate,” analysts stated.

    They estimated that Total Nigeria could record turnover of N239.63 billion and profit after tax of N5.14 billion, which will result in earnings per share of N15.11.

    Analysts said they expected increased sales volume in premium motor spirit, especially in the fourth quarter because of the associated festivities which triggers higher consumption volume of PMS noting that the company has been well-positioned to capitalize on the benefits of full deregulation as evidenced by over 500 retail outlets spread across the country.

    “Overall, we expect an improved performance on a year on year assessment for full-year 2013 and full-year 2014 and despite the many challenges in the sector; we think our earnings expectation is realizable,” analysts stated.

    They estimated dividend of N12 for the 2013 business year, which amounts to a 79 per cent dividend payout ratio on earnings estimate for the year.

    “The company is a solid brand and despite the sector wide challenges has managed to grow its revenue consistently over the last three fiscal years. The company has also been consistent with its dividend payout and have paid dividend in all of the last five fiscal years. The company remains a favorite for value investors like Pension Fund Administrators and other institutional investors. For a value stock, the upside potential is attractive at 27.6 per cent from current price to our estimate fair value. Overall, Total is a very strong brand for value investors,” analysts pointed out.

    They however warned that slower than expected growth in revenue could be a major factor that can impair earnings estimates.

    They added that the company’s dependence on high cost bank credit to fund importation as a result of the delay of the federal government to pay subsidy refund is also a major risk factor.

     

  • Promasidor, Shell, others submit entries for CSR awards

    Promasidor, Shell, others submit entries for CSR awards

    SOME big names like Promasidor, Shell, Olam, Total, Diamond Bank and 27 others have submitted entries to contest for the coveted awards of the most responsible Corporate Social Citizen being organised by TruContact Ltd.

    In a statement made available to The Nation by the organisers, they said the firms submitted their entries well ahead of the May 2013 submission deadline for the 7th edition of the SERAs.

    Over the past six years, TruContact Limited has implemented the SERAs in collaboration with key partners including the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). From inception, The SERAs team has made it a standard practice to verify all entries. This year’s verification of over 30 companies has commenced. The 2013 edition of the Nigeria CSR Awards is scheduled for September 21, 2013 at the MUSON Centre in Lagos.

    This year’s theme, ‘Shaping the Future Through Innovative Value Creation: Making a World of difference’, will continue to identify key players and showcase how business is creating shared value in a manner that benefits the business enterprise as well as its various stakeholders.

    According to Managing Partner of TruContact, Ken Egbas, “This year, we are increasing the stakes by promoting innovative thinking and strategies that explore the less trodden paths. We are looking for businesses that are creating value while differentiating their brand; and who are bold, deliberate and not afraid to stand apart in a bid to rewrite history.”