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[grupo guitarlumber] 05/5/2016 15:15

Solar Innovation At Qatar 2022
This Oil Major Seeks To Drive Solar Innovation At Qatar 2022

After acquiring the second-largest solar company in the world, global energy giant French Total SA is seeking to set up a solar business in Qatar to boost its chances of bagging the coveted solar project that would give Qatar’s 2022 FIFA World Cup games the smallest carbon footprint ever.

Total has become a global name in solar power after acquiring U.S.-based SunPower, the second largest solar company in the world.

The French energy giant already has a solar business in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where it has built a solar plant in partnership with Masdar and Abengoa Solar. But a foray into Qatar at this time is very significant, and it’s all about FIFA.

Related: Another Major Natural Gas Pipeline Project Bites The Dust

“We understand that Qatar Petroleum is establishing a new company in association with Qatar Electricity and Water Company to develop some solar farms in Qatar. We intend to study the possibility of setting up a joint venture between Sun Power and this new company,” Total Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné told the Gulf Times.

Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA world cup in 2022 will be the first by an Arab nation. Along with other controversies on awarding the World Cup to Qatar, one of the sticking points was the extreme hot weather during the time of the Cup, when temperatures are expected to reach 50 °C (122 °F).

Qatar had plans to use solar energy to cool the five stadiums where matches were to be held, as showcased in its 500-seater model stadium. The stadiums’ solar plants were to be connected to the national grid. During matches, the stadium would import energy from the grid, whereas, it would export to the grid when the stadium was not being used, making the facility carbon neutral.

Related: Oil Prices Fall Back as Rally Hits a Ceiling

Though FIFA has decided to change the date of the Cup now to coincide with the Qatari winter from 21 November to 18 December 2022, the general belief is that Qatar will still go ahead with the solar plants for the stadiums to prove their point that they could have successfully hosted the event even during the summer.

Qatar is also very determined to make a lasting impression by hosting a low carbon footprint version of the world cup—another continuing criticism of the event itself.
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Along with the cup, the Qatar National Vision 2030, launched in 2008, also emphasizes developing clean renewable energy resources, further solidifying the solar push. So while Qatar has the third largest gas reserves in the world exceeding 250 trillion cubic feet, accounting for more than 13 percent of the known global resource, and Doha has been the center of attention in failed talks of an oil output freeze, solar is fast becoming a focal point here.

The push by the oil and gas rich nations to adopt renewable energy resources may serve as proof that fossil fuels are destined to decrease in importance and will someday be overtaken by cleaner and greener energy.

Related: Why Oil Prices Will Likely Drop Below $40 Soon

But the interesting thing about FIFA—for all the criticism of its carbon footprint—is that it may be exactly events such as this that help bring solar and other renewable energy resources to the forefront. As always, it’s the biggest violators that come under pressure to change and start the ball rolling. Total is clearly in the front line of this changing game.

FIFA’s carbon footprint cannot be easily dismissed. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was said to generate over 2.7 million metric tons of CO2e, while FIFA worked on a plan to offset those carbon emissions.

FIFA is important to Qatar in more than one way. It’s not just about being the first Arab nation to host the World Cup—it’s a showcasing arena for the Qatari desire to become a leader in renewable energy and to prove to the world that it’s got just as much prowess in solar as it does in gas. FIFA during the summer would have been a major coup. FIFA in the winter will be a far less dramatic presentation setting for Qatar’s solar stadiums, but it could still drive the point home.

By Rakesh Upadhyay of Oilprice.com

[the grumpy old men] 02/5/2016 12:32

Total-logo
Total says its supercomputer is now the oil industry’s most powerful
0
By Editor on May 2, 2016 Technology, Upstream
Total’s supercomputer Pangea recently boosted its computing power from 2.3 to 6.7 petaflops1, the equivalent of more than 80,000 laptops combined. Its storage capacity has also been increased, to 26 petabytes2 — the equivalent of 6 million DVDs. With this upgrade, Pangea is the No. 1 Computer in the Industry and among the top 10 most powerful computers, public or private, worldwide in the TOP500 ranking.
“We tripled Pangea’s computing power in just two years. In the era of big data, state-of-the-art data-intensive computing is a competitive advantage. This power will help us to improve our performance and to reduce our costs,” comments Arnaud Breuillac, President Total Exploration & Production.
Pangea is a decision-support tool used for exploration and field management. The reasons for investing in the latest IT technologies in the market are to:
• Improve the accuracy of subsurface imaging.
• Optimize the development and production of Total’s fields.
• Save time, by shortening the duration of studies.
The capacity boost will support the use of next-generation algorithms developed by Total’s R&D to image increasingly complex regions and produce numerical simulations of fields, incorporating 4D3 seismic data.
Pangea requires a power supply of 4.5 MW. Total’s buildings in Pau, France are heated by reusing some of the heat released by the supercomputer. Pangea was designed by Silicon Graphics International (SGI).
Source: Press Release

[waldron] 01/5/2016 14:37

Anthony McAuley: Swimming in oil? Get ready for the supply crunch

Anthony McAuley

April 28, 2016 Updated: May 1, 2016 04:29 PM

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Topics:

Oil

The world oil market is heading for a supply crunch on current investment trends, a new report warns.

Wood Mackenzie, the Edin­burgh-based oil and gas consultancy, says that the severe drop in exploration and production (E&P) investment, as well as a string of poor exploration results, means the world oil market is on track to hit a shortfall of 4.5 million barrels per day by 2035.

The trend began even before the oil price crash, but has been made worse by the deep cuts in investment the industry has made since last year.

As WoodMac points out, the volume of newly discovered hydrocarbon liquids more than halved in recent years, declining from an average of 19 billion barrels each year in the 2008-11 period, to an average of 8 billion barrels a year in the 2012-15 period.

As well as lower volumes, the discoveries of the past four years have been largely “gas prone", so that the drop in crude oil reserves has been even more dramatic.

The WoodMac report echoes warnings from other energy watchdogs, including the US government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the OECD’s International Energy Agency (IEA), both of which have forecast that the oil price depression since late 2014 could eventually result in an equally sharp upturn in oil prices as investment in exploring for new oil provinces dries up.

The EIA has said that E&P investment cycles in the US track oil prices closely, with investment peaking in 2014 at US$158 billion, having averaged $122bn a year over the preceding decade as oil prices tripled.

US investment tracked plunging oil prices down last year, to just above $100bn, and the EIA says investment up until 2020 is likely to be well below levels of the previous decade as oil prices recover only gradually.

AlixPartners, a US consultancy, estimated that E&P investment by publicly listed oil companies globally fell from peak levels above $740bn in both 2013 and 2014 to $541bn last year, and it projects investment will fall further, to about $379bn this year.

WoodMac estimates that the proportion spent just on finding oil (exploration and appraisal) will average just $40bn a year up to 2018.

It is not just the level of spending that is worrying but the nature of that investment too, according to WoodMac.

“The shift in the industry’s focus towards exploring smaller near-field opportunities, with lower cost bases and shorter lead times, now means that fewer large, high-risk frontier finds are likely to be made in the near term," says Andrew Latham, a WoodMac analyst.

Although the oil price crash has cut deeply into investment, the oil glut has taken some time to abate and most forecasters expect only a gradual recovery in prices.

As WoodMac points out, about 90 per cent of the oil discovered during peak investment years in the 2000s is yet to be produced, so that about 18 million bpd could be added to supply over the next decade from these discoveries to replace depleted reserves elsewhere.

But because of the long lead times needed to develop large, conventional oil finds, the market could start to move toward shortfall thereafter if investment trends continue over the next few years.

“Look, we know there are cycles in the industry and we’re not predicting there is going to be an inevitable shortfall," says Patrick Gibson, the head of global oil supply research at WoodMac. “We’re just pointing out what are likely to be the consequences of current investment trends.

“The size and nature of the next tranche of discoveries is crucial for maintaining long-term global oil supply growth."

Anthony McAuley covers the energy beat for The National

[la forge] 28/4/2016 21:44

Oil market to face lack of supply in 3 years: Total CEO

'In this industry, if you don't invest, you will have a natural decline in production,' head of Total says

28.04.2016 economy
Oil market to face lack of supply in 3 years: Total CEO
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By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK

The global oil market will face a lack of supply in three years' time due to expenditure cuts and postponements in mega projects, Patrick Pouyanne, chairman of the Board and CEO of French oil giant Total said Wednesday.

Speaking at 2016 Columbia Global Energy Summit, Pouyanne talked about the difficulties that oil companies are facing under low oil prices.

"Fifteen days after I became the CEO of Total, oil prices collapsed ... and we lost $10 billion in cash flows in two months," he said.

"Due to the huge drop in oil prices, most of the players had to squeeze their cash flows and investments," he added.

Because of oversupply and low global demand, oil prices fell from $115 a barrel in June 2014 to below $30 a barrel in January 2016, marking a 75 percent decline.

The CEO noted that total spending in the oil industry also fell gradually during that time -- from $700 billion in 2014, to $500 billion in 2015, and an expected $400 billion for this year.

"Because of less investment in shale oil and in major fields around the world, we will see a supply level this year ... In this industry, if you don't invest, you will have a natural decline in production," he added.

"In the oil business, only two major projects were sanctioned worldwide in 2015 -- one in Norway and one in the U.S.' Gulf of Mexico. It's clearly insufficient ... We will not see immediate impact now of these expenditure cuts, but in 3 or 4 years we will see their impact," he explained.

Due to their massive volume, a decline in production from mega projects could result in a substantial drop in global supply. Under these conditions, Pouyanne stressed that the best strategy is to sanction new projects by the end of this year, provided that the costs are in line with low oil prices.

"In the commodity business, the right way to make money is to invest when the prices are low, because when the prices are low, costs are low," he explained.

He also emphasized that the oil production decline in the U.S. "has made a big impact about the anticipation that by this year's end, there can be a balance of supply and demand in the market."

Domestic oil output in the U.S. fell around 600,000 barrels a day since peaking in April 2015. This was due to low oil prices, and many in the industry regard this as a positive step towards price recovery and for allowing the market to find a balance.

[waldron] 28/4/2016 16:07

June 06, 2016
Ex-dividend date for the remainder of the 2015 dividend

[waldron] 28/4/2016 07:56

Iran eyes March launch for major refinery
TEHRAN, 1 hours, 15 minutes ago

National Iranian Oil Refinery and Distribution Company (NIORDC) is planning to launch a major refinery project by March, 2017, a report said.

The first phase of the Persian Gulf Start Refinery, a gas condensate refinery, will go on stream before then, added the Iran Daily report.

The phase will do away with the need to import gasoline, the report said, citing Shana.

The refinery, which will be operated on an EPC basis, is owned by Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Investment Company (49 per cent), Oil Industry Pension Fund (33.1 per cent) and NIORDC (17.9 per cent), according to the report.

[waldron] 28/4/2016 07:29

By Inti Landauro


PARIS--French oil company Total SA (TOT) and its partners developing the $27- billion Yamal gas project in Russia are finalizing a $4 billion financing arrangement from Russian banks, Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardiere said Wednesday.

The partners made significant progress having already lined up $12 billion from Chinese banks, Mr. de la Chevardiere said during a conference call with analysts.

OAO Novatek (NVTK.LN), the lead partner, was hit by U.S. sanctions against Russia. The partners--Total, Novatek and state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.--have said in the past that they were seeking around $15 billion from Chinese and Russian banks, as well as export-credit agencies in European and Asian countries.

The project has become a test of how complicated and expensive Russian energy developments have become in an era of stringent American sanctions on the country's oil-and-gas industry.



Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 09:58 ET (13:58 GMT)

[grupo] 27/4/2016 19:21

Total SA's Earnings Keep Sliding, but Also Show Signs of Strength
Profits declined 40% compared to this time last year, but Total's underlying numbers hint at a company that will do very well once oil and gas prices increase again.

Images

Image Source: Total SA corporate website

There are few integrated oil and gas companies that are working as hard as Total SA (NYSE:TOT) to get their cost structures under control. For the past few quarters, the company has steadily outpaced its peers in maintaining profitability levels, and based on the results so far, it looks like Total will keep this crown through 2016. Let's take a quick dive into Total's numbers for the quarter and see what the company is doing to stay ahead of its big oil peers.

Total's results: The raw numbers
Metric
Q1 2016 Q4 2015 Q1 2015
Sales $32.841 billion $37.749 billion $42.313 billion
Net income (adjusted for non-cash charges) $1.636 billion $2.075 billion $2.602 billion
EPS (adjusted for non-cash charges) $0.68 $0.88 $1.13
Cash flow from operations $1.881 billion $4.838 billion $4.387 billion

Source: Total SA earnings release

The numbers in this result are pretty indicative of the overall environment for oil and gas companies. Total was able to increase its overall production by 4% year over year to 2.47 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, but the company's average realized hydrocarbon price fell to $26.4 per barrel of oil equivalent from $41.8 per barrel of oil equivalent during the same period last year. Keep in mind that the per barrel equivalent number is a weighted average of price for the production of both oil and natural gas.

As expected from the decline in realized prices, upstream production was the largest contributor to the decline in earnings, while its other segments pretty much held serve. One thing to consider, though, is that despite such a low realized oil and gas price, Total was able to still eke out a profit from that side of its business. Compare that to BP's most recently quarter results, which showed the primary thing the upstream part of its business is producing is losses in the billion-dollar range.

Tot Earnings

Image Source: Total investor presentation

The one number from the report that probably jumps out the most is the decline in cash flow from operations. That drop is in part due to a large build in working capital. Excluding working capital changes, cash flow operations from the quarter would have been $3.7 billion. The 20% decline that number reflects is considerably smaller than the 40% decline in earnings per share. At a time where oil and gas companies are starved for liquidity, it's good to see cash flow declining at a slower rate than earnings.

What happened at Total this past quarter

Its Laggan-Tormore production facility came online and is now delivering 90,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent.
Production started at its Vega Pleyade gas field off the cost of southern Argentina at a rate of 70,000 barrels per day of oil equivalents. We should expect to see the full effects of those two new production sources on overall production in the coming quarter.
About $985 million in divestments were executed, consisting mostly of pipelines in the North Sea and an equity interest in a Northern Russian oil field.
It signed an additional 1.5 million tons per year of LNG supply contracts with various buyers; the LNG supplies will come from the company's various LNG produciton facilities.
Current and long-term borrowings actually declined from $55.4 billion to $53.9 billion, but a decrease in cash on hand to $20.6 billion left the company with a net debt to equity ratio of 30.2%, a slight uptick from prior quarters.

What management had to say
The oil and gas industry has had a rough go of it lately, but Total's earnings have held up well compared to its peers, CEO Patrick Pouyanne's recent statements reflect a company that has managed rather well during the downturn, and one that is continuing to cut costs, remaining one of the more profitable companies in its space throughout this cycle:

Despite a 37% fall in the Brent price to 34 $/b since the first quarter 2015, the Group's adjusted net income was $1.6 billion. Operating cash flow before workfing capital changes was $3.7 billion, a decrease limited to 20% due to the resilience of our integrated model...

All teams continue to pursue their cost reduction efforts. The organic investment of $4.6 billion during the first quarter is in line with the objective of limiting Capex to less than $19 billion in 2016. Operating costs are decreasing as planned with the objective of achieving $900 million in savings during the year.

Looking forward
Total's refining & chemicals and marketing & services businesses have looked strong in recent quarters, but Total won't see a return to larger profits until we see a decent uptick in oil and gas prices. That the company's upstream segment has remained modestly profitable is a testament to its cost-cutting efforts; in the coming quarters, it's worth watching to see if it can eke out slightly better profits, even with these low oil prices. If it can, then when the market for oil does turn, expect Total to be in very good shape.

10-second takeaway
It would be easy to look at the 40% decline in earnings and say that Total is suffering in this market just like everyone else. If you look beyond the numbers for a second, though, you can see a company that is still generating profits from oil and gas production despite very low prices and a weak environment for refining and chemicals. These are signs that the company is in a much better place than when we started this oil decline, and could be one of the better investments in the oil patch today.

[grupo] 27/4/2016 17:32

(ShareCast News) - Oil prices pared gains on Wednesday after official data showed US crude oil inventories rose more than expected last week.
The US Energy Information Administration said domestic crude inventories rose by 2.0m barrels to 540.6m barrels in the week to 22 April, more than the 1.7m increase expected by analysts.

Crude oil imports fell by 637,000 barrels per day (bpd) to an average of 7.6m bpd last week, the report also showed.

US crude oil refinery inputs averaged more than 15.8m bpd, down 257,000 bpd on the previous week.

At 1603 BST, West Texas Intermediate crude dipped 0.38% to $43.87 per barrel and Brent crude dropped 0.02% to $45.73 per barrel.

Oil prices had rallied earlier on Wednesday after data from the American Petroleum Institute revealed US crude inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels last week.

[ariane] 27/4/2016 08:43

PARIS—French oil giant Total SA said its net profit fell 40% during the first quarter of 2016 compared with a year earlier, despite large cost cuts and an elevated level of production.

The company's net profit in the first three months of 2016 fell to $1.61 billion from $2.66 billion in the same period last year, while it extracted a 10-year record of 2.48 million barrels of oil equivalent a day. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a net profit of $1.14 billion and an oil output of 2.39 million barrels a day.

Sales fell 22% during the first quarter to $32.84 billion.

Total managed to remain profitable during a quarter when oil prices averaged below $35 a barrel. Total said its technical costs to extract oil were $23 a barrel of oil equivalent, while its rivals were in the range of $26 to $44 during the year.

"The upstream portfolio benefited from the lowest technical costs among the majors," Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement.

The company has said it is in line to cut its operating costs by $900 million this year and plans to cut its capital investment to below the $19 billion target it had set two months ago, down from $23 billion in 2015.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2016 02:55 ET (06:55 GMT)

[ariane] 27/4/2016 07:56

Money Market
Volatile Exchange Rate Hurts Total Oil Earnings
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Posted: Apr 25, 2016 at 3:18 am / by Christopher Okobi / comments (0)
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