Vol. 71/No. 24 June 18, 2007
That would put the companys annual worldwide production at 3 million barrels a day. African production is expected to account for two-thirds of that growth and soon replace Europe as Totals top production source, Jean Privey, president of Totals exploration and production in Africa, told the Wall Street Journal.
Total is the third-largest foreign oil producer in Nigeria, first in Gabon, and second in Cameroon. It holds concessions in Congo-Brazzaville and North African countries, including Libya and Algeria. The companys annual African oil production in 2006 was 719,000 barrels per day. Last year it was second on the continent after ExxonMobil, which produced 780,000 barrels per day.
Total bolstered its oil presence in Africa with the acquisition in 2000 of Elf Aquitaine, which began oil projects in French colonies in the 1930s. Total also got a boost in the 1980s when it obtained concessions for deep-water offshore fields along Angolas coast in the midst of Luandas war against an invasion by the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Totals oil fields in Angolas Block 3 hold an estimated 1 billion barrels. Dalia, a field in Block 17, is already pumping 240,000 barrels a day. Pazflor, a field in the same Block, is expected to yield 200,000 barrels per day. Another 850,000 barrels per day are expected from the CLOV fields, which should be ready after 2010.
Oil production in Africa is made even more attractive by the signing of production-sharing arrangements in which the companys investment is totally reimbursed with barrels of oil.
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