Total’s Deepwater Expertise Recognized at OTC 2013

At the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, held from May 5 to 9, Total was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award for Companies for its Pazflor deep offshore development. The prestigious award is presented annually to the company that has advanced deepwater oil expertise and technology as part of a major project.

“Total is delighted with this award for Pazflor, which cements our position as an industry leader both in the deep offshore and in managing large-scale international projects,” said Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Upstream President at Total. “Above all, it is well-deserved recognition for the teams that took part in the project, meeting stringent safety, environmental, scheduling, budget and quality specifications. They are all to be sincerely congratulated.”

Begun in December 2007 and covering an area of 600 square kilometers offshore Angola, in water depths ranging from 600 to 1,200 meters, Pazflor represents an important milestone in the development of Total-operated Block 17. Production currently averages 220,000 barrels per day, and more than 45 million barrels have been produced since first oil in August 2011.

The Pazflor project integrates major technological breakthroughs in bringing challenging deepwater fields on stream. The technological feat – a world first – consisted of installing subsea separation units and pumps to boost the liquids from the three Late Miocene reservoirs, near the production wells.

This technological achievement is also a people-led success. A significant part of the Pazflor development was carried out in Angola, as part of Total’s commitment to increasing local content in its projects. As many as 4,500 people on four different continents were involved in the project at the same time, for a total of 32 million hours worked, including 3.8 million in Angola. With total capital expenditure of $9 billion, the Pazflor project benefited the entire Angolan economy through the participation of the country’s leading oil industry contractors.