7th Nov 2006 11:26
Total S.A.07 November 2006 Joslyn SAGD Project Enters Commercial Production in Canada Paris, November 7, 2006 - Total announces the startup of the commercial phase ofits Joslyn project in the Athabasca region. The Joslyn lease is located about60 kilometres northwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Deer Creek Energy Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Total, is the operator of Joslyn with an 84% interest. The Joslyn lease will be produced using both SAGD and oil sands surface mining technologies. This first development using steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) will bring production to 10,000 barrels of bitumen per day at plateau, which will beshipped after dilution to a terminal on the Athabasca Pipeline. The startup of this phase of the Joslyn SAGD project represents the firstcommercial production from the Joslyn lease. It is a further key step in Total'sstrategy to developing its heavy oil resources in Canada. Total estimatescumulative production from the Joslyn lease at around 2 billion barrels ofbitumen. Mining developments are planned for the first part of the next decade. Anapplication for the first 100,000 barrels of bitumen per day surface miningproject was submitted to the regulatory agencies in February 2006 and iscurrently being reviewed. Total also has a 50% working interest in the Surmont SAGD project, which isexpected to begin production from its first commercial phase in early 2007 andreach plateau production of 27,000 barrels per day. The potential productionfrom Surmont is more than 200,000 barrels per day. Total's share of the aggregate production from Surmont and Joslyn should reachnear to 300,000 barrels per day in the next decade. In addition, the Group hastaken significant positions in other neighboring blocks and is actively studyingdownstream solutions to upgrade the bitumen. ****** Total is one of the world's major oil and gas groups, with activities in morethan 130 countries. Its 95,000 employees put their expertise to work in everypart of the industry - exploration and production of oil and natural gas,refining and marketing, gas trading and electricity. Total is working to keepthe world supplied with energy, both today and tomorrow. The Group is also afirst rank player in chemicals. www.total.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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