Total quits top U.S. oil lobby over climate policies
Total quits top U.S. oil lobby over climate policies
By Ron Bousso January 15, 2021 reuters.com
LONDON (Reuters) - France’s Total SE on Friday became the first major global energy company to quit the main U.S. oil and gas lobby due to disagreements over its climate policies and support for easing drilling regulations.
Total said it would not renew its 2021 membership with the American Petroleum Institute (API) following a review of the lobby’s climate positions, describing them as being only “partially aligned” with Total’s.
Its withdrawal from the API, the most powerful U.S. oil and gas lobby, comes ahead of sweeping changes in policy direction in the United States, with incoming President Joe Biden promising to tackle climate change and bring the country to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Total said it was withdrawing from the API due to the industry group’s support for last year’s rollback of U.S. regulation on emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, for its differing views on how to assign a price to carbon, seen as critical for curbing emissions, as well its lack of support for subsidies for electric vehicles.
“As part of our climate ambition made public in May 2020, we are committed to ensuring, in a transparent manner, that the industry associations of which we are a member adopt positions and messages that are aligned with those of the Group in the fight against climate change”, Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné said.
The API is recognized for industry safety standards and practices that are considered the global standard. European oil companies have in the past pointed to its role in formulating industry standards as their rationale for remaining with the group.
The industry group thanked Total for its membership, but noted that it does not support subsidies for energy, saying it distorts markets.
“We believe that the world’s energy and environmental challenges are large enough that many different approaches are necessary to solve them, and we benefit from a diversity of views,” the API said.
The group has defended its record on tackling carbon emissions, noting that the industry’s technological advances have helped it cut carbon dioxide and methane emissions rates in large oil-producing regions.
Total last year announced plans to cut its carbon emissions, with the aim of reaching net zero emissions from its operations and its energy products sold to customers in Europe by 2050 or sooner.
Investors said Total’s move may force the hand of other European majors like BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
“There is simply no justification for any association with lobby groups who roll back emissions regulations and undermine urgent climate action,” said Jeanett Bergan, head of responsible investment at KLP, Norway’s largest pension fund, which manages $80 billion in assets.
Total’s operations in the United States include a number of offshore oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, a major refining and petrochemical plant in Port Arthur, Texas, as well as renewable energy businesses. The company produced about 343,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter in the Americas.
MORE SIGNIFICANT
Europe’s top energy companies have outlined plans to curb emissions and boost renewable energy output following years of growing investor pressure.
Total, BP and Shell have already pulled out of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), a U.S. oil refining group, also due to differences over climate policies.
Until Friday, those companies had elected to remain in the API.
Andrew Logan, director for oil and gas programmes and clean energy investor group CERES, said the announcement was significant and would put pressure on other European oil majors.
“Given the size and influence of API, this is a much more significant move than previous decisions to pull out of more niche trade groups like AFPM. I think that we will see other companies follow suit,” Logan said.
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Total and 174 Power Global plan to build 1.6 GW of U.S. solar and storage
French energy giant Total called the 50/50 joint venture a “first significant step” into the U.S. utility-scale solar market.
January 14, 2021 Joe Bebon pv-magazine-usa.com
French energy giant Total and 174 Power Global, a unit of Hanwha Group, have formed a 50/50 joint venture (JV) to develop 12 utility-scale solar and energy storage projects of 1.6 GW cumulative capacity in the United States.
Transferred from 174 Power Global’s development pipeline, the JV projects are located in Texas, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Virginia, and Hawaii. The first project started production in 2020, and the remainder are expected to go online between 2022 and 2024.
According to the partners, the JV builds on Total’s long-standing cooperation with the Hanwha Group and combines 174 Power Global’s development experience in the Unites States with Total’s decade-long international work.
“This transaction is a first significant step for Total in the U.S. utility-scale solar market, in line with our 2025 ambition to achieve 35 GW of renewables production capacity worldwide,” said Julien Pouget, Total’s director of renewables.
Hanwha Group is a South Korean business conglomerate that was founded in 1952 as Korea Explosives Co. The group has diversified to include retail and financial services.
174 Power Global was formed in 2017. In December it signed a seven-year dispatch rights agreement with ConEdison for the development of a 100 MW battery storage project, the East River Energy Storage System, in Astoria, Queens.
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/01/14/total-and-174-power-global-p...
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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on
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Total Makes Significant Oil Find
by Andreas Exarheas Rigzone Staff Friday, January 15, 2021
Total (NYSE: TOT) has announced that it and Apache Corporation (Nasdaq: APA) have made a 'significant' new oil and gas discovery at the Keskesi East-1 well in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname.
Total (NYSE: TOT) has announced that it and Apache Corporation (Nasdaq: APA) have made a “significant” new oil and gas discovery at the Keskesi East-1 well in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname.
The well was drilled at a water depth of about 2,380 feet and was said to have encountered a total of 206 feet of hydrocarbons, comprising 190 feet net of black oil, volatile oil, and gas pay in good quality Campano-Maastrichtian reservoirs, and 16 feet of net volatile oil pay in Santonian reservoirs.
Drilling is still ongoing for deeper Neocomian aged targets, Total revealed. The company’s latest find follows previous discoveries at Maka Central, announced in January last year, Sapakara West, announced in April last year, and Kwaskwasi, announced in July last year, Total highlighted.
“We are delighted to announce this new discovery, which confirms this first exploration campaign as a full success and adds to the proven resource base” Kevin McLachlan, the senior vice president of exploration at Total, said in a company statement.
“We are also excited, as new operator of the block, to start the appraisal operations designed to characterize the 2020 discoveries, while in parallel start a second exploration campaign on this prolific block in 2021,” he added.
Commenting on the find, John Christmann, Apache’s chief executive officer and president, said, “we are very pleased to announce our fourth consecutive discovery in Block 58 at Keskesi, which confirms oil in the eastern portion of the block”.
“We are excited to commence the appraisal program on our initial discoveries and extend our Block 58 exploration program to the north in 2021,” he added.
Pursuant to the terms of its joint venture agreement, Apache transferred operatorship of Block 58 to Total S.A. on Jan. 1, 2021. Back in December 2019, Total announced that it had signed an agreement with Apache to acquire a 50 percent working interest and operatorship in the “highly prospective Block 58 offshore Suriname”.
In addition to its discoveries offshore Suriname, Total has also made notable finds in other areas of the globe recently. At the end of October last year, for example, the company announced a significant gas condensate discovery on the Luiperd prospect, which is located on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin off the southern coast of South Africa. Total also made a gas discovery with the Bashrush well on the North El Hammad license in July 2020 and a gas and condensate discovery in the North Sea in March 2020.
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