The Future of Total Exploration: One Ambition

Abstract

The future of Total's exploration is fully integrated in a corporate 20 year ambition to become The Responsible Energy Major. Total's ambition is to meet the energy needs of a growing world population, tackle climate change and provide solutions that match changing customer expectations. Exploration is contributing to this ambition by providing a reliable exploration portfolio and program with the highest standard of safety and environmental stewardship, and that discoveries are developed profitably by bringing down project break-even prices and costs. To reach these objectives, our exploration strategy has five main pillars: The first is Technical Excellence starting with team creativity and collaboration from new venture evaluations to prospect maturation. The use of well defined methods and processes is the basis for robust decisions on acreage selectivity, on exploration well drilling, and appraisal strategy and operations in order to shorten time from acreage acquisition to the development decision. The second pillar is Technology Innovation. Seismic is the primary technology to unlock prospects and reduce risk. Advanced seismic imaging, which is used on complex structural environments and subtle traps definition is also a top priority and is a main axis of our activities. The utilization of the latest generation of High Performance Computing (HPC) permits us to improve the processing time, increase the resolution of seismic images and to reduce the uncertainties. The third pillar is a strategic focus based on the study of key petroleum basins. Basin mastering teams are sharing knowledge and are assessing plays on specific basins to support basin entry choices to ensure a strong and well-balanced exploration portfolio. To capitalize on the knowledge of basins scales, the geographical organization of Exploration in Total is key to the optimal integration of an extensive knowledge of any potential or proven petroleum basin in the world. The fourth of our five pillars is Integrated Studies, which allows for improved efficiency in terms of planning and also ultimately improve recovery estimates in our developments. The integration of all the key geological expertise is also important and Total focuses on all the geosciences competencies necessary for exploration. Finally, and of utmost importance, the development of Geoscientists and teams is squarely at the center of Total's 20-year ambition with the promotion and development of a pioneering spirit.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90291 ©2017 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Houston, Texas, April 2-5, 2017