Total Share Discussion Threads

[waldron] 03/4/2018 17:12

Total
46.705 +1.25%

Cac 40 Index 5,152.12-0.3%


BP
479.5 +0.05%



Shell A
2,234 +0.02%

FTSE 100 7,030.46-0.4%



Shell B
2,271 -0.26%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 67.92 +0.62%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.98 +0.63%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.70 +0.86%

[waldron] 03/4/2018 12:25

Total
46.815 +1.48%


Cac 40 Index 5,144.43-0.4%









BP
481.05 +0.38%



Shell A
2,247.5 +0.63%



Shell B
2,286 +0.40%


FTSE 100 7,041.78-0.2%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 67.76 +0.39%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.98 +0.47%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.68 +0.07%

[waldron] 03/4/2018 08:24

Total
46.385 +0.55%


Cac 40 Index 5,145.54-0.4%



BP
477.15 -0.44%



Shell A
2,228 -0.25%

Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 68.00 +0.74%
Gasoline NYMEX 1.97 +0.36%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.68 +0.19%



Shell B
2,272 -0.22%


FTSE 100 7,001.22-0.8%

[the grumpy old men] 02/4/2018 08:48

Exclusive: Total’s robot trial is world first

Written by Allister Thomas - 02/04/2018 7:00 am

The machine can perform visual inspections and read dials, level gauges and valve positions.
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A revolutionary project which will see the world’s first autonomous robot working on an oil rig has been unveiled.

Total is developing the scheme alongside the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC).

The robot will eventually be trialled on Total’s Shetland Gas Plant and Alwyn platform, 270 miles north-east of Aberdeen. The trial will be carried out within 18 months.

OGTC says the initiative could start a “revolution in robotics”.
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Exclusive: Total’s robot trial is world first

It is being developed with Austria’s Taurob and Darmstadt Technical University, which won Total’s Autonomous Robots for Gas and Oil Sites (Argos) challenge last year.

They developed a robot that could perform routine tasks in a simulated oil and gas environment.

OGTC says the machine can perform visual inspections and read dials, level gauges and valve positions.

It can also negotiate narrow pathways and stairs.

Dave Mackinnon, head of technology and innovation at Total E&P UK, said: “We believe robots have the potential to play an important role on offshore platforms.

“We are on the cusp of delivering technology that will improve safety, reduce costs and even prolong the life of North Sea operations.

“Robots represent an exciting new paradigm for the oil and gas offshore industry.

“It’s starting to undertake repeatable tasks that people are forced to do. It’s moving the human out of the dangerous or repetitive situation.”

OGTC’s Rebecca Allison said: “We are delighted to be involved in this world-first project that is at the cutting edge of robotics for the oil and gas industry.

“A robot working alongside humans on a North Sea platform isn’t a distant aspiration, it could be a reality in the next 18 months.

“Robotics has the potential to transform the offshore oil and gas industry.

“We have countless repetitive, dirty and potentially dangerous tasks carried out every day. Integrating robots for these tasks will help upskill our workforce and improve the quality of the jobs.

“Projects like this will help inspire and attract the next generation oil and gas workforce.”

Mr Mackinnon also spoke about the prospect of platforms being built specifically for autonomous vehicles instead of humans, without the requirement for accommodation or emergency systems.

But he says the advances in technology shouldn’t be seen as a concern for the workforce: “Someone still has to build, operate and fix the robot.

“You will see the workforce change, but it is not going to happen overnight.”

[the grumpy old men] 02/4/2018 08:40

Exclusive: Total’s robot trial is world first
by Allister Thomas
April 2, 2018, 8:28 am

The machine can perform visual inspections and read dials, level gauges and valve positions
Sign up to our Business newsletter
Subscribe todaySubscribe today from 99pSubscribe today from 99p

A revolutionary project which will see the world’s first autonomous robot working on an oil rig has been unveiled.

Total is developing the scheme alongside the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC).

The robot will eventually be trialled on Total’s Shetland Gas Plant and Alwyn platform, 270 miles north-east of Aberdeen. The trial will be carried out within 18 months.

[grupo guitarlumber] 30/3/2018 08:50

30/03/2018 8:02am
Dow Jones News

Shell A (LSE:RDSA)
Intraday Stock Chart

Today : Friday 30 March 2018
Click Here for more Shell A Charts.

Its recent deals are part of a long-term strategy for its huge natural-gas output

By Sarah Kent

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 30, 2018).

LONDON -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC is on a spree of small but strategic acquisitions in an area oil companies have long avoided: the power sector.

In the past few months, the British-Dutch oil giant bought a utility, an electric-car charging business and a stake in a solar-power company, part of a broader long-term plan to marry its huge natural-gas output with a futuristic utility business.

Shell is making a bet it can profit from changes to the power market as renewables begin to play a bigger role, combining its large energy-trading division and massive natural-gas supply -- the world's largest from a non-state-backed company -- to fill gaps when the sun doesn't shine or wind doesn't blow. Eventually, Shell said it could even compete with tech companies, crunching data about how and when customers use electricity to give them a better deal.

If all goes to plan over several decades, Shell said it would produce gas at the well, use it to produce electricity and then sell power to homes, businesses and electric-vehicle charging stations -- a similar model to its oil-rig-to-gas-station petroleum business.

It "makes us future proof in a world where electricity becomes the biggest game in town," said Maarten Wetselaar, Shell's head of gas and new energies in a recent interview.

Shell last month bought a midsize U.K. power supplier, First Utility, for an undisclosed amount, giving it direct access to retail electricity consumers for the first time. Last year, the company bought one of Europe's biggest electric-vehicle charging companies, New Motion, also for an undisclosed sum.

The company is in a partnership with Ionity -- a joint venture of large car manufacturers established to create a network of fast-charging points across Europe. In January, Shell announced plans to acquire a nearly 44% stake in U.S. solar company Silicon Ranch Corporation in a deal valued around $200 million.

Shell has said it plans to spend between $1 billion and $2 billion a year in what it calls its "New Energies" division through 2020 -- more than many other large oil companies are setting aside for renewables and electricity generation. The company is building wind farms off Europe's coast and has said future investments could also include gas-fired power plants.

The moves reflect Shell's need to find an outlet for its prodigious natural gas output, which grew with the company's roughly $50 billion acquisition of BG Group in 2016.

They also show how Shell and other large oil companies are anticipating shifts in how people consume energy, as many governments try to reduce fossil-fuel consumption under the 2015 United Nations' Paris agreement to fight climate change. Whether oil demand will level off in the coming decades is up for debate, while electricity consumption is widely expected to increase.

By 2050, power consumption is expected to outstrip demand for Shell's core business of oil and gas, said Mr. Wetselaar. The company's most recent of several potential scenarios, published Monday, foresees a world in which demand for oil and gas peaks in the next 50 years, driven by successful efforts to meet global climate goals. Reliance on electricity, by contrast, is expected grow from around 20% of energy consumption to closer to 50% by midcentury.

"To be an energy major by then, we'd better play in that sector," Mr. Wetselaar said of electricity.

Total SA -- another early mover on electricity -- is looking to build a retail power business in France. The French company also said it would consider investments in gas-fired power stations around the world to lock in a market for its growing gas production and has bought a battery company. British rival BP PLC has also said it would consider investments in gas power plants, though it has held back from setting ambitions to compete as a utility.

The challenge is selling electricity profitably. The oil industry has already lost billions of dollars in previous efforts to move into renewables. Shell made early and unprofitable moves into offshore wind and solar that prompted a yearslong retreat from those sectors. Meanwhile, oil companies have tended to avoid the highly regulated, localized and lower-return business of producing and selling electricity.

"The clean energy sector is a very difficult subject for the majors," said Valentina Kretzschmar, a director at Edinburgh-based consultancy Wood Mackenzie. "Anything on the renewables side -- including power -- has much more inferior returns on investment than what the companies can get from their oil and gas projects."

Shell is proceeding with caution, putting a fraction of its $25 billion to $30 billion capital spending budget into its new energies business. It will remain an oil-and-gas producer first for decades.

Shell's acquisition of First Utility gives it a customer base of 825,000 homes across the U.K. and Germany. Meanwhile, New Motion gives it more than 30,000 private home electric-vehicle charging points and over 50,000 public sites across Europe. Together with Ionity, Shell plans to install 500 high-speed charging points across 10 European countries in the next two years.

It is a long-term bet that the number of electric vehicles on the road will rise in Europe, encouraged by moves in France, the U.K. and others to eventually ban the combustion engine.

"There's a tipping point that's not that far out," Mr. Wetselaar said.

Write to Sarah Kent at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 30, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

[grupo guitarlumber] 29/3/2018 22:13

Exxon, Total join majors Interested in Iraq oil auction
Exxon, Total join majors Interested in Iraq oil auction


Exxon Mobil Corp., Total SA and Lukoil PJSC are among international companies interested to win rights to develop 11 oil and gas border fields as OPEC's number two producer continues to build production capacity.

Iraq plans to hold a bidding round on April 15 and award service contracts the same day for companies to develop 11 onshore and offshore fields along the borders with Iran and Kuwait, Abdul Mahdy Al-Ameedi, the Oil Ministry's director-general for upstream oil contracts, said Thursday at an event in Baghdad to show details of the fields to the companies.

The 16 companies that expressed interest also include Chevron Corp., Eni SpA, Gazprom PJSC., Zarubezhneft OAO, Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Oil & Natural Gas Corp., Cnooc Ltd., Geo-Jade Petroleum Corp., China ZhenHua Oil Co., United Energy Group Ltd., Dana Gas PJSC, Crescent Petroleum Co. and Dragon Oil Plc, according to an Oil Ministry document distributed on Thursday.

Iraq has been ramping up crude production and exports over the last few years as the country overcomes decades of conflict and sanctions. The country has become the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, though it's now bound by the group's agreement with other major producers to keep limits on their output to reduce global inventories. Iraq produced 4.36 million barrels of crude a day in March.

Iraq plans to develop three blocks along the border with Kuwait, which are Khidr Al-Maa, Jabal Sinam and al-Fao, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said by phone. It will also auction rights for seven areas at the border with Iran, which are Sindibad, Huwaiza, Shahabi, Zerbatia, Naftkhana, Injana and Khashm Ahmar, and Klabat wa Gumar. Also on offer is the offshore Al-Khaleej Al-Arabi block in the nation's waters on the Persian Gulf, he said.

[waldron] 29/3/2018 17:28

Total
46.13 +0.64%

Cac 40 Index 5,167.30+0.7%



BP
479.25 +1.67%



Shell A
2,233.5 +0.09%


FTSE 100 7,056.61+0.2%



Shell B
2,277 -0.35%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 69.04 -0.03%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.03 +0.26%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.74 +1.41%

[waldron] 29/3/2018 12:25

Total
46.01 +0.38%

Cac 40 Index 5,158.44+0.6%



BP
478.95 +1.60%

V

Shell A
2,245.5 +0.63

Shell B
2,289.5 +0.20%


FTSE 100 7,072.49+0.4%



Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 68.41 -0.94%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.01 -0.62%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.74 +1.33%

[waldron] 29/3/2018 08:55

Total
45.76 -0.16%

Cac 40 Index 5,143.67+0.3%


BP
471.95 +0.12%



Shell A
2,232.5 +0.04%


Shell B
2,280 -0.22%


FTSE 100 7,053.99+0.1%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 68.90 -0.23%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.02 -0.18%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.74 +1.26%

[maywillow] 28/3/2018 22:03

MEXICO CITY (AFP) -

French company Total has won three blocks in Mexico's last auction of oil and gas areas before the country holds presidential elections in July.

The three blocks are located in the Gulf of Mexico -- two of them were awarded in partnership with state oil company Pemex and another with Britain's BP and Pan American.

"This completes our positions in the deep and shallow waters of the Perdido and Salinas basins and strengthens Total's presence in Mexico with seven blocks, three as operator," a spokesman for the company said Wednesday.

Total, which has sold lubricants in Mexico since 1982, in January opened the first of 250 gas stations planned for the country, joining BP and other oil giants in a fight for the recently opened fuel market.

In Tuesday's auction, 16 of 35 oil fields were awarded, whose development is expected to generate $8.262 billion, according to the Mexican government.

Others winners besides Total included Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, Spain's Repsol and Italy's ENI.

In 2013, Mexico approved a constitutional reform that for the first time in more than seven decades ended Pemex's monopoly on the country's energy sector, which encompassed everything from exploration and production to refining and sales.

The next auction will be held weeks after the July 1 presidential election, in which leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who opposes opening the industry to outsiders, has a lead in opinion polls.

[waldron] 28/3/2018 17:42

From Mars to VenusRoyal Dutch Shell and Total flirt with becoming utilities

It looks like shrinkage. But small starts may mask big ambitions
Print edition | Business
Mar 28th 2018

IN AMERICA Big Oil remembers BP’s attempt to go “Beyond Petroleum” in the 2000s as a toe-curling embarrassment. In Europe it is seen as being ahead of its time. Once again the oil industry is experimenting with cross-dressing. Statoil, a Norwegian oil firm, is abandoning a name given to it almost 50 years ago to become the wispier Equinor. The firm formerly known as Dong, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, is now Ørsted, a big wind firm named after the founder of electromagnetism.

Royal Dutch Shell and Total, Europe’s biggest private producers, are (mercifully) not changing their names. But they are toying with a strategy that could be far more adventurous—moving their core businesses from hydrocarbons to electrons.
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Amid pressure to limit climate change, and the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs), they expect low-carbon electricity to become a much bigger part of the world’s energy mix within the next few decades. They have already invested heavily in building global natural-gas businesses for cleaner power generation. Now they plan to take on utilities in deregulated markets to provide electricity and gas direct to homes and businesses.

Last month Shell completed the acquisition of First Utility, a midsized British gas and electricity supplier that already operates under the Shell brand in Germany. The Anglo-Dutch firm plans to make a similar move in Australia. Late last year Total launched the supply of gas and green power to households in France, through its Total Spring brand. Both have invested in renewable energy and are installing EV charging points in their networks of petrol stations. “We don’t see how we can be an energy major if we don’t become a significant player in electricity,” says Maarten Wetselaar, head of gas and new energies at Shell. A Total executive says: “Why should we limit ourselves to selling gas to a utility when we can sell to end-customers?”

At first glance the shift could be considered a shrinking of horizons. These firms are global beasts with vast balance-sheets. Customer-facing utilities are minnows by comparison. Centrica, the biggest of Britain’s Big Six, is worth £7.6bn ($10.8bn), compared with Shell’s market value of £190bn. They often operate in only one or two national markets, each a regulatory minefield. Bill-paying customers tend to loathe them far more than they do the purveyors of petrol and pain aux raisins.

Power-generating utilities have also performed poorly in recent years compared with their oil and gas counterparts. They piled on debts before the 2007-08 financial crisis and were then hit by the rise of wind and solar, which drove down wholesale electricity prices. Peter Atherton, of Cornwall Insight, a consultancy, says that whereas supermajors aim for returns on capital on big oil and gas developments of 15%, renewables provide returns of 7-9%. In Britain, the energy retailers aim for profit margins of 4-5%.

Yet Jake Leslie Melville of BCG, a consultancy, says the oil companies are right to “test the waters” in electricity. For instance, Shell’s acquisition of First Utility, reportedly for $200m, may be deemed expensive considering the latter’s 850,000 household customers. But as a way of exploring whether Shell’s prowess in natural-gas supply and energy trading can be extended to providing services to millions of customers, some of whom will increasingly generate their own electricity, it may be a small price to pay—especially for a company that invests at least $25bn a year.

Moreover, small beginnings may mask big ambitions. Mr Wetselaar says his aim is to generate electricity returns of 8-12%, which he thinks is feasible because Shell, with its energy-trading experience, can profit from the heightened volatility of power markets in the era of renewables and EVs, as well as from more flexible demand from consumers. To become material to Shell, the electricity business would need to grow to $50bn-100bn, on a par with the size of its current gas business, he says. Scott Flavell of Sia Partners, a consultancy, mulls whether, having acquired BG, an upstream producer once owned by British Gas, Shell might covet Centrica, owner of the downstream part of British Gas.

There are reasons for caution. Julian Critchlow of Bain, a consultancy, compares the risks facing the oil industry with those of Eastman Kodak when its business was ruined by digital photography and photo-sharing. It is clear that increased electrification is bound eventually to cause upheaval. “The challenge, as with Kodak, is whether you can spot where the returns will be.” Another risk is that technology firms may move into the domestic electricity market, making use of smart meters and digital devices, which would provide more alternatives to traditional energy suppliers. Yet if other oil and gas producers are not following in Shell and Total’s tentative footsteps, they probably should be. It is time to plug in.


This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "From Mars to Venus"

[waldron] 28/3/2018 17:09

Total
45.835 -0.55%

Cac 40 Index 5,130.44+0.3%



BP
471.4 -0.83%



Shell A
2,231.5 -1.26%



Shell B
2,285 -0.95%


FTSE 100 7,044.74+0.6%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 68.04 -1.18%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.00 -0.62%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.71 -0.41%

[waldron] 28/3/2018 12:21

Total
45.66 -0.93%


Cac 40 Index 5,071.78-0.9%



BP
469.4 -1.25%



Shell A
2,230.5 -1.31%






Shell B
2,277 -1.30



FTSE 100 6,990.92-0.1%



Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 69.24 +0.57%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.02 +0.45%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.70 -0.52%

[waldron] 28/3/2018 08:18

Total
45.79 -0.65%


Cac 40 Index 5,078.37-0.7%




BP
471.8 -0.75%



Shell A
2,241 -0.84%



Shell B
2,286.5 -0.89%


FTSE 100 6,949.14-0.7%


Brent Crude Oil NYMEX 69.02 +0.25%
Gasoline NYMEX 2.02 +0.12%
Natural Gas NYMEX 2.71 -0.07%

[waldron] 27/3/2018 17:04

BP
475.35 +1.24%



Shell A
2,260 +2.31%



Shell B
2,307 +2.26%



Total
46.09 +0.41%

[waldron] 27/3/2018 11:13

BP
477 +1.59%



Shell A
2,266.5 +2.60%


Shell B
2,316.5 +2.68%

Total
46.31 +0.89%

SOME LUCKY PEOPLE BOUGHT SHELL YESTERDAY WITH THEIR DIVI PAY

[ariane] 27/3/2018 10:05

Total SA (FP.FR) said Tuesday that its venture-capital arm has signed an agreement with Hubei High Technology Investment Guiding Fund Management Co. and Cathay Capital to launch an investment fund focused on innovation in the energy sector in China.

Total Energy Ventures and Hubei High Technology will each invest about 300 million yuan ($50 million) in the fund, which has a total capital target above CNY1.5 billion.

"The fund will focus its investments on emerging technologies and new business models of the Chinese energy sector, notably renewable energy, energy internet, energy storage, distributed energy, smart energy and low-carbon activities," the French oil-and-gas company said.



Write to Marc Bisbal Arias at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 27, 2018 04:37 ET (08:37 GMT)

[waldron] 27/3/2018 08:26

BP
474.65 +1.09%



Shell A
2,243 +1.54%



Shell B
2,290 +1.51%



Total
46.325 +0.93%

[waldron] 26/3/2018 17:25

BP
469.55 +1.54%



Shell A
2,209 +0.45%



Shell B
2,256 +0.33%



Total
45.9 +0.21%