Total Share Discussion Threads

[misca2] 12/3/2021 11:46

(MT Newswires) -- Shares in Hydrogen Refueling Solutions (ALHRS.PA) climbed over 5% on Friday morning after it secured an order from Total (TTA.L, FP.BR, FP.PA, ALHRS.PA) to supply and install a dual-pressure hydrogen refueling station at one of the energy company's sites.

The French designer and manufacturer of hydrogen refueling stations will install a 200 kilogram-per-day facility with an extended hydrogen storage capacity of 190 kilograms by June. It will be the first such plant in Europe that can be easily dismantled and quickly installed at other sites, according to the company.

Total gained marginally in London early Friday.

Price (GBP): £41.79, Change: £0.19, Percent Change: +0.46%

[misca2] 12/3/2021 11:42

Societe Generale raised its target price for Total from 7% to 46 euros while maintaining its Buy recommendation.


The broker raised its 2021/2022 oil forecast and lowered its dollar forecast.

As a result, it raised its earnings per share and cash flow generation estimates.

The research firm continues to believe that Total is one of the best performing stocks in the sector, but one that trades at a discount to its fair valuation and while it offers a 7% yield, fully covered by cash.

The broker expects Brent crude oil to reach $60 a barrel in 2021, up from $46.

For 2022, it is targeting $60, compared with $55 previously. The analyst continues to forecast $60 beyond that.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[ariane] 11/3/2021 09:40

Total and Microsoft today announced that they have agreed to collaborate as strategic partners to further digital transformation and support progress toward net-zero emissions.



The dynamic development of Microsoft and Total in their respective areas of expertise and their rich histories of innovation brings many concrete opportunities for collaboration over a multi-year timeframe:

-- Total's global presence and market knowledge can support Microsoft's
sustainability objectives, including its 2025 target for renewable energy
and contribute to the energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction
efforts of its datacenters.
-- Total will further leverage the cloud platforms of Microsoft. Total has
decided to accelerate its IT transformation and leverage the power of
Azure for digital transformation projects and for Total Digital Factory.
Total will broaden and enrich its existing modern workplace environment,
based on Microsoft Office 365 which will provide collaboration and
productivity solutions for its employees and its operations. Total will
also explore the value of the Power Platform to automate business
processes, reduce cost and allow easier access to data for its citizen
developers.
-- Explore and co-innovate on areas of collaboration around sustainability,
further digital transformation and AI solutions accelerating the
transition to a net-zero economy, for example, the deployment of
low-carbon and carbon-removal technologies.


As part of its sustainability objectives, Microsoft aims to eliminate its dependency on diesel fuel by 2030. Total, through its affiliate Saft, will support Microsoft in its development of a long-term roadmap to diesel-free operations, initially by helping Microsoft assess the suitability of various Total technologies as part of Microsoft's portfolio of onsite backup energy assets, including:

-- Diesel genset displacement: Microsoft sees large-scale batteries as a key
component on its path to eliminate dependency on diesel fuel, which is
used in generators to provide backup power for datacenters. Microsoft and
Total established a partnership to assess the long-term feasibility of
deploying large batteries as backup power for critical infrastructure.
This assessment is being carried out with the help of Saft, a global
leader in backup power batteries.
-- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Batteries play a critical role within
Microsoft's datacenter infrastructure. Saft batteries will provide
additional values to help Microsoft improve its specifications to its UPS
suppliers and ultimately meet its sustainability goal. Those values are
energy savings, higher safety, lower Cobalt, and a self-powered
monitoring system to ensure optimized system availability.


Microsoft has made a public commitment to use 100% renewable energy by 2025. Total's ambition is to reach 35 GW of renewable electrical capacity in 2025 and then nearly 100 GW in 2030. Total will assist Microsoft to secure renewable energy through power purchase agreements (PPAs). A first PPA of 47 MW has been agreed for Microsoft's Spanish operations.



Microsoft and Total are also working on emerging technologies critical to a net-zero pathway and digital solutions that can accelerate their adoption.



"The rapid development of Total and Microsoft in their areas of expertise brings many opportunities of cooperation for both companies, who are at the forefront of the fight against climate change" said Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of Total. "We are committed to bringing our expertise by selling green electricity to support Microsoft in achieving its sustainability goals, and we're pleased to rely on Microsoft's cloud and AI solutions to accelerate our digital transformation. This is fundamental to drive progress towards a world with net-zero emissions".



"We have an enormous opportunity to use advances in digital technology to reduce greenhouse emissions," said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. "Our strategic partnership with Total will apply the comprehensive power of Microsoft cloud platforms to accelerate Total's transition to new energies and to meet sustainability goals."



Total, renewables and electricity



As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, Total is building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity that should account for up to 40 % of its sales by 2050. At the end of 2020, Total's gross power generation capacity worldwide was around 12 GW, including 7 GW of renewable energy. Total will continue to expand this business to reach 100 GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources by 2030 with the objective of being among the world's top 5 in renewable energies.



About Total



Total is a broad energy company that produces and markets fuels, natural gas and electricity. Our 100,000 employees are committed to better energy that is more affordable, more reliable, cleaner and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, our ambition is to become the responsible energy major.



About Saft



Saft specializes in advanced technology battery solutions for industry, from design and development to production, customization and service provision. For 100 years, Saft's longer-lasting batteries and systems have provided critical safety applications, back-up power and propulsion for our customers. Our innovative, safe and reliable technology delivers high performance on land, at sea, in the air and in space. Saft is powering industry and smarter cities, while providing critical back-up functionality in remote and harsh environments from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara Desert. Saft is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total.

[waldron] 10/3/2021 13:54

(MT Newswires) -- Total's (TTA.L, FP.PA) Total Quadran subsidiary entered into an agreement with Orange (ORA.PA) to develop an 80-megawatt portfolio of 12 solar projects in France by 2024, according to a Wednesday filing.

Under the 20-year power purchase agreement, the oil major will supply Orange with about 100 gigawatt-hour of renewable electricity annually.

Price (GBP): £41.15, Change: £41.15, Percent Change: +0.75%

[ariane] 10/3/2021 10:26

U.S. inventories data due later in the day.

[ariane] 10/3/2021 08:44

In a research note published by Christyan Malek, JP Morgan gives a Neutral rating to the stock. The target price is unchanged and still at EUR 50.

[waldron] 09/3/2021 22:52

Oil Prices Slide On Yet Another Surprise Inventory Build

By Julianne Geiger - Mar 09, 2021, 3:43 PM CST

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported on Tuesday a build in crude oil inventories of 12.792 million barrels for the week ending March 5.

Analysts had predicted an inventory build of 816,000 barrels for the week.

In the previous week, the API reported a major build in oil inventories of 7.356-million barrels after analysts had predicted a 928,000-barrel draw. But that was nothing compared to the EIA's report a day later of a 21.6 million barrel build.

It is unclear whether today’s reported stock build is part of EIA’s large build reported last week, or whether we will see another large build from the EIA tomorrow.

Oil prices slid further on Tuesday ahead of the data after a couple days of price rallying courtesy of the Houthi rebels, who claimed Sunday's attack on Saudi oil infrastructure.

At 3:19 p.m. EDT, before Tuesday's data release, WTI had fallen by $0.99 on the day (-1.52%) to $64.06. Although down for the day, WTI is still trading up more than $4 per barrel over this time last week.

The Brent crude benchmark had also fallen on the day, $0.75 at that time (-1.10%) to $67.49—also more than $4 per barrel up on the week.

U.S. oil production rose by 300,000 bpd barrels per day to 10.0 million bpd, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Enbridge tanks at Cushing as of March 5. Image courtesy of GeoSpatial Insight

The API reported another large draw in gasoline inventories of 8.499 million barrels for the week ending March 5—on top of the previous week's 9.933-million-barrel draw. Analysts had expected a 3.467-million-barrel draw for the week.

Distillate stocks saw a large decrease as well, of 4.796 million barrels for the week, after last week's 9.053-million-barrel decrease.

Cushing inventories rose by 295,000 barrels. Last week, inventories at the Cushing oil hub increased by 732,000 barrels.

Post data release, at 4:35 p.m. EDT, the WTI benchmark was trading at $63.79, while Brent crude was trading at $67.22.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

[waldron] 09/3/2021 13:26

Guyana: Westmount Energy announces commencement of drilling operations at Jabillo-1, Canje Block, offshore Guyana

09 Mar 2021
Photo - see caption

Westmount Energy has noted the announcement by the Maritime Administration Department, Guyana, that the Stena Carron drillship will commence drilling operations at the ExxonMobil-operated Jabillo-1 wellsite on the Canje Block, offshore Guyana on the 10th March 2021.

Jabillo-1 is the second of 3 exploration wells scheduled for drilling the Canje block in 20211. Previously published information indicates that Jabillo-1 is a circa 1,000 MMbbl oil prospect targeting a Late Cretaceous, Liza-age equivalent, basin floor fan.

Westmount holds an indirect interest in the Canje Block as a result of its circa 7.7% interest in the issued share capital of JHI Associates Inc. Following a 2018 farm-out to Total, JHI is carried for the drilling of the Jabillo-1 well and is funded for the drilling of additional wells.

The Canje Block is currently operated by an ExxonMobil subsidiary, Esso Exploration & Production Guyana (35%), with Total (35%), JHI (17.5%) and Mid-Atlantic Oil & Gas (12.5%) as partners.

Original article link

Source: Westmount Energy

[ariane] 09/3/2021 09:59

Upcoming events on TOTAL SE



MARCH/25/2021 Ex-dividend day for quarterly dividend

[ariane] 09/3/2021 08:46

Oil supermajors spent almost $50bn to ‘please investors’ in 2020, report finds

Features & AnalysisOil & GasPetrochemicals

By James Murray 08 Mar 2021

The world’s five largest private-sector oil and gas companies – ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Total and Shell – collectively spent $49.9bn on shareholder dividends and share buybacks last year
Oil pump

The oil supermajors generated $20.5bn from their core business operations in free cash flow throughout 2020 (Credit: Pixabay/ArtTower)

The oil supermajors combined to spend almost $50bn on payouts to their investors in 2020, according to a report.

The analysis by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) shows that the world’s five largest private-sector oil and gas companies – ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Total and Shell – collectively spent $49.9bn on shareholder dividends and share buybacks last year.

The firms generated $20.5bn from their core business operations in free cash flow throughout 2020 – marking a cumulative gap between free cash flows and shareholder payouts of $29.4bn, which is almost triple the previous year’s deficit.

“These results spotlight a harsh reality,” said Trey Cowan, an IEEFA energy analyst and co-author of the report. “Investors can no longer count on the oil and gas supermajors to generate abundant, sustainable cash returns.”


Four of the oil supermajors failed to generate enough cash to cover payments to investors

The report highlights that during 2020, four of the companies failed to generate enough cash from their primary business – selling oil, gas, refined products, and petrochemicals – to cover their cash payments to shareholders.

Texas-based ExxonMobil paid $17.8bn more to shareholders during the year than it generated from its core business operations, while California-headquartered Chevron paid $9.5bn more, British firm BP paid $7.3bn more, and France’s Total rewarded its shareholders with $2.9bn more than it generated.

Anglo-Dutch multinational Shell was the only supermajor to buck the trend, generating an $8bn cash surplus.

But to do so, the company reduced dividends by two-thirds – its first per-share dividend cut since 1945 – and suspended share buybacks and slashed capital expenditures by 28% year-over-year.

The report found that the five companies have reported $325bn in free cash flows over the past decade while rewarding shareholders with a whopping $561bn in share buybacks and dividends.

It added that the supermajors have funded their “investor-pleasing spree” by selling assets and taking on long-term debt. Even though a recent spike in oil prices and increase in demand from an easing of the global Covid-19 pandemic have been “cause for optimism”, investors are beginning to take notice, according to the analysis.

It highlights that Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings lowered the ratings of both ExxonMobil and Chevron to AA-, noting that the industry faces a “more difficult operating environment”.

“Generous dividends and share buybacks give the globe’s largest private oil and gas companies a veneer of blue-chip financial performance,” said Clark Williams-Derry, an IEEFA financial analyst and co-author of the report. “But closer examination reveals an underlying financial weakness.”

[gibbs1] 08/3/2021 10:47

(MT Newswires) -- Total (TTA.L, FP.PA, FP.BR) will reduce its footprint in the Murchison Falls in Uganda to less than 1% of the park's surface, following an independent third-party review regarding social and environmental action plans.

The French oil company said that in line with Avoid – Reduce - Compensate principles within its biodiversity policy, the development will be significantly restricted, while undeveloped areas will be voluntarily relinquished immediately.

The group said the project has been designed to minimize the footprint of the facilities, which will occupy less than 0.05% of the park’s area. The current permits covers nearly 10% of the park.

Shares in Total were marginally lower Monday morning.

Price (GBP): £41.24, Change: £0.26, Percent Change: +0.63%

[maywillow] 08/3/2021 08:29

Total SE said Monday that its renewable energy subsidiary Total Quadran has won 50 megawatts of solar projects.

The French energy major said it received the contract in a national tender from the regulator for the French electricity and gas markets.

Total has been awarded nearly 400 megawatts of solar projects in the last 18 months, the company said.



Write to Kim Richters at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 08, 2021 02:39 ET (07:39 GMT)

[la forge] 04/3/2021 19:17

Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA on Thursday reported a storage tank overpressure event while working to restart its refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, after a major storm forced a shutdown.

"While preparing to restart the refinery following the winter storm, Storage Tank 948 received flush from Vacuum Distillation Unit 2 and experienced an overpressure event which resulted in VOCs [volatile organic compounds] being released to atmosphere," the refinery said in a statement to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It said the emissions happened Wednesday.

"The refinery increased nitrogen flow to the tank, and maintained a nitrogen blanket following the event," it added.

The 225,000-barrel-a-day Total Port Arthur refinery is located 95 miles east of Houston.



Write to Dan Molinski at [e-mail]



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 04, 2021 12:59 ET (17:59 GMT)

[maywillow] 01/3/2021 14:13

Upcoming events on TOTAL SE

march/25/2021 Ex-dividend day for quarterly dividend

[ariane] 01/3/2021 08:39

Uganda: Construction of Uganda-Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline to Start in March
27 February 2021
The Monitor (Kampala)
By The Citizen

The construction of the $3.5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop) is scheduled to start next month, it was revealed yesterday.

Briefing journalists yesterday about his recent five-day official visit to France, Foreign Affairs minister Palamagamba Kabudi said Total Oil Company director for Africa Division Nicolas Terraz assured him that actual construction of the project would start in the second week of March.

"While in France I held talks with Total director who assured me that all is set for the construction of the pipeline to kick off in the second week of next month," Prof Kabudi told a press conference.

In September last year, President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, and his Tanzanian counterpart, John Magufuli, agreed to hasten the implementation of the Eacop project in a bilateral meeting held in Chato District in Geita.

This was a follow-up meeting after Uganda signed the Host Government Agreement (HGA) with Total on the multibillion dollar Eacop Project.

The two leaders urged officials from both countries to expedite the harmonisation of pending issues and fast-track the remaining agreements including the Tanzanian HGA to fasten the implementation of the project.

As a result of the push from the duo, in October last year, Tanzania and Total signed an agreement that could pave the way for the construction of a crude oil pipeline from Uganda to the Tanga port.

Negotiations for the Tanzanian HGA covered, among others, project authorisations, land rights, local content, health safety and environment and labour standards.

The 1,447-kilometre pipeline will be used for transportation of crude oil from Hoima in Uganda to the Tanga port for export overseas.

The pipeline, two thirds of which will pass through Tanzania, will generate at least 4,700 direct employments and 27,000 indirect jobs, according to Prof Kabudi.

Tanzania and Uganda agreed in March 2016 that a pipeline to transport crude oil from the Lake Albert basin in west Uganda to the markets overseas be routed through the Tanga port.

An agreement to the letter was signed by the two neighboring countries in May 2017 followed by the laying of a foundation stone at the Tanga port by presidents Magufuli and Museveni in August the same year.

Eacop is expected to unlock East Africa's potential by attracting investors to explore opportunities in the region.

In another development minister Kabudi said Total is planning to construct the coating industry and lubricant blending plant here in the country.

Meanwhile, Prof Kabudi held talks withFrench Development Agency (AFD) deputy managing director Bouduin Philippe who informed him about the France government's decision to double the fund for the development projects to €1.2 billion (Sh3.3 trillion), for five years from 2017 to 2022.

Furthermore, AFD in collaboration with Tanzania are in the final stages of discussions about the Tanzanian strategic projects in clean water and sanitation, energy and infrastructure sectors.

"Already €791.7 million (Sh2.2 trillion) has been set aside for the projects," said Prof Kabudi.

Read the original article on Monitor.

[ariane] 01/3/2021 08:33

Total secures LNG bunker licence from Singapore
01 Mar 2021by John Snyder

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has awarded an LNG bunker supplier licence to Total Marine Fuels Private Ltd for a five-year term starting 1 January 2022

Total Marine Fuels (TMF) will be the third LNG bunker supplier licensed in the port, joining FueLNG Pte Ltd and Pavilion Energy Singapore Pte Ltd to meet the anticipated growing demand for LNG bunkering volumes in Singapore.

TMF was awarded the licence after responding to MPA’s Request for Proposal issued 28 October 2020 for parties seeking to supply LNG bunkers in the port. Singapore currently has an LNG bunker supply capacity of up to 1M tonnes per annum.

“This achievement underscores Total’s goal to be a leading LNG bunker supplier globally and is in line with our climate ambition to get to net zero by 2050, together with society,” said Total marine fuels vice president Jérôme Leprince-Ringuet. “LNG is the best, immediately available solution to reduce our shipping customers’ carbon footprint and it paves the way towards carbon-neutral bioLNG and synthetic methane. We will continue to ramp up our investments to deliver competitive, reliable and end-to-end LNG bunkering solutions for customers in Singapore and beyond,” said Mr Leprince-Ringuet.

MPA chief executive Quah Ley Hoon said, “As the world’s top bunkering hub, the Port of Singapore is well-positioned to expand its offering of marine fuel solutions. LNG serves as a viable and clean transitional marine fuel to reduce carbon emissions from ships.” Ms Quah said the addition of TMF as an LNG bunker licensee would “bolster the country’s ambition in becoming Asia’s leading LNG bunkering hub. We will continue to work with interested parties to grow the bunkering ecosystem in the Port of Singapore and drive the transition to a more sustainable future.”

Riviera will provide free technical and operational webinars in 2021. Sign up to attend on our events page

[maywillow] 27/2/2021 12:51

REACTION LIFE



BY Neil Collins / 26 February 2021

Bernard Looney would rather Trinity College Cambridge did not sell its shares in oil companies. As CEO of BP, it’s understandable that he should believe that turning your back on them is no way to encourage a change in behaviour. It is unlikely that the college grandees are listening. Enough of the students have been convinced that oil is evil to overwhelm anything as intellectual as an investment case. For them, no price is too low to justify holding these destroyers of the planet.

Similar pressure is being brought to bear on local authorities. Friends of the Earth, a militant anti-carbon pressure group, has calculated that the authorities’ pension funds hold £10bn of shares in fossil fuels, including – shock – £3.5bn in coal. Trinity has already capitulated and agreed to sell, and the councils are similarly unlikely to resist. Yet it may not be so easy. Trinity has holdings in 172 fossil fuel companies, but 168 of these are through tracker funds, so the college would have to sell the funds to get out of the earth-destroyers.

The councils will find themselves in the same bind, should they crumble before the FoE pressure. Besides, there may be a serious financial penalty in selling. A year ago, a switch from BP to Orsted, market leader in the offshore windmill business, would have looked smart. These shares more than doubled to their peak in January, while BP halved to their worst, when Covid briefly collapsed the oil price. But the Texan freeze-out exposed an uncomfortable truth about wind farms, and Orsted shares have fallen by a quarter in two months. BP, meanwhile, are 40 per cent above their low. This may owe more to the realisation that oil and gas will remain central to the world’s economy for many years yet than to Mr Looney’s homilies about being nice to “companies who are leaning into the transition”, as he puts it.

One that is not leaning is Total, whose CEO not only believes that shares in green energy companies are in a bubble, but has put his company’s money where his mouth is, selling a half share of its wind and solar farms to Credit Agricole. Like everyone else in the West, he aspires to get to net carbon zero by 2050, but as the Chinese keep demonstrating, when it comes to climate change, words and figures do not agree.

Staberdeen in the back

Nobody would claim that the merger of Standard Life with Aberdeen Asset Management has been a resounding success. When it was announced four years ago, Standard was worth £7.5bn and Aberdeen £3.8bn. The combine is valued at £7bn today. The twin-headed CEO structure has gone, and Stephen Bird, the newish single incumbent, is understandably fed up with it being dubbed Staberdeen.

The usual remedy is a change of name to draw a veil over the past, or as one reader of Wealth Manager website put it, to disguise the sell-off of the Standard Life name, which despite devaluation over the years, probably still has some brand value. The deal to sell it, to the existing partner Phoenix, is described as a “simplification” process, although nothing is simple in the world of life assurance, and the market was unimpressed. On a yield of 6.6 per cent, investors suspect the SLA dividend might be “simplified221; too, in a downwards direction. Fortunately for the nation’s savers, there are some reasonable performers among the £500bn of funds that Staberdeen manages. Not those holding SLA shares, obv.

Newts on the line

They know they’re in trouble on the Great White Elephant project when they can’t even look after a few wintering newts. Yes, it’s Britain’s most expensive comedy show, sometimes abbreviated to HS2, the railway few want and nobody needs. It’s now under investigation for “wildlife crimes” for failing to set newt traps properly, leading to the death of at least one unfortunate shrew. If found guilty, there’s the prospect of unlimited fines. Great Crested Newts can be jolly pricey; I K Gricer, my engineer surveying the old railway line which used to join Bicester to Bletchley, calculates that it will cost him £10m to comply with the rules protecting them, providing another excuse for HS2 to over-run its £100bn budget.

Still, help could be at hand. Beleaguered Grant Shapps at the Department of Transport is advertising for a non-executive director for HS2 Ltd, giving someone “a real opportunity to shape the direction of this critical and highly visible project” as it scythes its way through the English countryside. For £950 a day, two days a week, he/she will be holding the leadership to account, with “particular focus is on improvements in HS2’s approach to communications and engagement with communities along the route.” The bureaucrats at DaFT should watch out for an application from Daniel Hooper. Aka Swampy, he may soon find himself able to spare a couple of days a week between burrowings.

[waldron] 26/2/2021 15:29

Analyst Oswald Clint from Bernstein research gives the stock a Neutral rating. The target price is unchanged and still at EUR 43.

[grupo] 23/2/2021 17:54

Total CEO sees ‘little sense’ in shareholder divestment from oil majors over climate concerns

Features & AnalysisOil & Gas

By Andrew Fawthrop 23 Feb 2021

Patrick Pouyanné said divestment from big producers would make no change to global climate efforts, adding the clean-energy transition won't happen 'in the blink of an eye'
2017-07-11,Patrick,Pouyannã©,,Ceo,,Total,,France,Makes,His,Speech,At

Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné (Credit: Tolga Sezgin /Shutterstock)

Divesting from major oil and gas producers on grounds of climate change makes “little sense”, says Total chief executive Patrick Pouyanné, because other companies will simply pick up the excess production.

The boss of the French energy firm urged investors and shareholders to support “big players with large balance sheets and financial capacity” because without them the low-carbon energy transition will not “become a reality”.

Stakeholder pressure on the world’s top oil companies is increasing amid heightened concerns over their contribution to climate change and demands for decisive action to reduce emissions across the energy industry.

Many oil and gas firms, including Total, have outlined recent ambitions to gradually pivot away from fossil energy in favour of electrification and alternative fuels.

But public scrutiny remains strong, with warnings of divesting if shareholders do not feel these plans are going far or fast enough, or the business risks associated with climate change are not being adequately addressed.


Oil and gas demand won’t disappear soon, and divesting would leave production for others to take up

Speaking at the IP Week conference today (23 February), Pouyanné called for patience from investors while making a pitch for the role companies like Total have to play in the low-carbon energy transition.

“The word transition does not mean we can do everything in the blink of an eye,” he said. “We need time because we need investments. The energy transition has to be done, but it will take time because it’s a highly capital-intensive industry – and renewables are even more capital intensive than oil and gas.

“Frankly, it makes little sense to me to divest from Total, Shell or Exxon just because of climate change. Because even if [they] stop producing oil and gas, other companies will produce it because the world requires this energy today.

“I’m sure national [oil] producing companies from many countries would be happy, but it will make no change in terms of climate change globally. So my answer [to investors] is let’s build a broad energy model, and let’s consider Total as a company in transition but that will really contribute to the energy transition.”

The Total chief said he does not expect to see a decline in global oil and gas demand before 2030, although confirmed the company would gradually change the balance of its product mix to include more energy from gas and renewable electricity in preparation for lower oil demand in the following decade.

In the meantime, cash generated from the company’s oil and gas business will be used to finance clean energy spending, with 20% of this year’s $12bn capital budget allocated to its renewables and power business.


Total’s focus on natural gas as ‘indispensable’ complement to renewables

Last May, Total outlined a target to become a net-zero business by 2050, diversifying away from fossil fuels to focus increasingly on low-carbon and renewable energies. It even recently proposed a name change to TotalEnergies to reflect this new emphasis.

It has set milestones to build 35 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity by 2025 – a goal it has already achieved – and 100GW by 2030. Total further plans for 15% of its business to be based on electricity products by the end of this decade, and to cut oil products to one-third of its sales portfolio over the same period, compared to more than 50% today.

However, Pouyanné was adamant about the role natural gas will play in Total’s long-term strategy as an “indispensable” complement to renewables.

“It’s quite clear,” he said. “All customers want reliable energy, and for us natural gas is the complement to renewable energy. There is no way to think of a reliable energy system without having a flexible way to produce electricity. Gas offers this flexibility.”

He pointed to recent events in Texas – where a winter storm has forced power outages for millions of residents, businesses and facilities – as an example of the consequences of not having a reliable power system capable of rapidly responding to such incidents.

“I’m afraid to say that the recent experience in Texas demonstrated that when it’s snowing wind turbines can get frozen and the solar panels can get covered by snow,” he added. “You have a problem with reliability, you know.”

While Texas is indeed a beacon of US renewables growth and the unavailability of these sources did not help the situation, the events witnessed over the past weeks have been widely attributed more to failures of natural gas infrastructure than the inability of wind and solar farms to operate in low temperatures.

A recent commentary from the International Energy Agency noted: “Texas has a power shortage because it has a gas shortage. Most of Texas’ electricity demand is met with natural gas. When demand rises, nearly all the incremental supply comes from gas-fired power generation.

“But the cold weather hampered gas production, with frozen gas wells contributing to a 20% cut in South Central’s gas production. As a result, there wasn’t enough to supply the system’s gas generators.”

[grupo] 23/2/2021 16:13

Oil Major Total Makes Big Bet On Green Hydrogen
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 23, 2021, 10:00 AM CST
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French supermajor Total looks to become a large producer of clean hydrogen one day, chairman and chief executive Patrick Pouyanné said on Tuesday during the virtual IP Week conference run by the Energy Institute.

“We have huge interest in hydrogen... We want to be a large producer at scale of clean hydrogen,” the top executive of one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world said, reiterating the firm’s ambition to become a broad energy company that is not just pumping oil and gas.

There are challenges in lowering the cost of clean hydrogen and making it commercially viable, Pouyanné said, but noted that liquefied natural gas (LNG) was also slow to take off decades ago before becoming a major industry and trade commodity today.

Earlier this year, Total and energy provider Engie applied for subsidies which, if obtained, would allow them to build the largest green hydrogen facility in France that will use only solar power to produce hydrogen. Total and Engie have signed a cooperation agreement to design, develop, build, and operate France’s largest renewable hydrogen production site, which will be located in southern France and will meet the needs of Total’s La Mède bio-refinery.

Total is the latest oil major that is stepping up efforts to develop a green hydrogen economy, while it is betting on profitably growing its LNG and renewable businesses as part of its new strategy and net-zero agenda.

Shell is also developing several projects for renewable hydrogen production, including a plan to build the largest European green hydrogen project in the Netherlands by 2040, NortH2.

Last November, BP created a partnership with offshore wind giant Ørsted to develop an industrial-scale electrolyzer project for green hydrogen ‎production in Germany. Italy’s oil and gas major Eni and utility giant Enel announced in December they would work together to develop green hydrogen projects.

At the end of last year, the UK and Scottish authorities announced they would fund the world’s first pilot project for heating homes with green hydrogen.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com