Total Petroleum Expands Oil Operations Across The Globe

Total Petroleum is the worlds fourth largest publicly integrated oil and gas company and the largest corporation of France. Its operations are spread over 130 countries and the company employs more than 95000 people in all its facilities. Besides oil and petroleum, the company has business interest in chemical as well as in the coal mining and power generation sectors.

Total Petroleum is involved in all aspects of the petroleum industry and these include Upstream and Downstream operations. The former aspect is related to oil and gas exploration, development and production. The company is the fifth-largest international oil and gas producer in the world with a production capacity of 2.36 million barrels of oil equivalent in a day. As of December 2006, it has proven reserves of 11.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The Group has exploration and production activities in 42 countries and produces oil and gas in 30 countries.

The Downstream operations of Total Petroleum include the trading, shipping, refining and marketing of Total and Elf brand petroleum products, automotive and other fuels. Through its retail and other worldwide network, the company is also involved in the distribution of specialty products like LPG, aviation fuel, lubricants, petrochemical feedstock and bitumens. The company has interests in 27 refineries in Europe, United States, French West Indies and China besides operating 13 of them directly.

The Chemical segment of Total Petroleum is divided into Base Chemicals activities and Specialty Chemicals activities. The former division encompasses fertilizers and petrochemicals like olefins, aromatics, polyethylene, polypropylene and styrenics. These are used in a wide range of domestic and industrial applications like packaging, construction and automobiles. Specialty Chemicals activities comprise rubber processing, resins, adhesives and electroplating. In 2006 the sales from the chemical segment amounted to 19.11 billion Euros. Besides its business interest in chemicals and power generation, the company also has financial interest in Sanofi-Aventis.

Total Petroleum has taken up a series of initiatives to protect and conserve the environment. These include carefully managing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing energy efficiency and developing innovative technologies like Carbon Dioxide Capture and geological sequestration. Other measures comprise of reducing water use and treating waste water before releasing it to the environment as well as managing and recycling waste produced as a result of its refining operations.

Increasing depletion of fossil-based energy reserves and heightened environmental pollution has forced oil and gas producing companies all over the world to think of alternative energy sources. Total Petroleum has also affirmed its commitment to restrict consumption and explore new energy vectors like synthetic liquid hydrocarbons and other renewable sources of energy. In this area, the company is researching the possibility of using biomass, photovoltaic solar energy as well as wind and water energy. Total Petroleum