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Unnecessary thus to solicit all azimuthsA wonderful starting point for this Odyssey KrugProbably another arm of railway rates and discountsIt is easy to mock the concept of young entrepreneursEach time he sought to preempt the MedefHighly caloric she is crushed and used as fuelNeed to build a third tourist pole in FranceIn 2007 the number of hirings still exceeded the 1000 workstationsAn argument rejected by the competition CouncilStation then effect boomerang for the dollar and the yenTotal comes to start a huge challenge. The French group will take on the management of the company joint in charge of the operation of the Kashagan field in the Kazakhstan, the largest oil discovery in 30 years. The objective Closing a project which took seven years of delay and saw its costs $ 57 billion to $ 136 billion. It is a size of the exploration-production, Pierre offering, fifty years old branch, which will be the responsibility of the project. This is two and a half years, Total had "put the hot" this former of Elf passed by the Norway, the Congo and the Australia by entrusting the group purchases.
This appointment occurs at the end of the agreement signed Friday between the Kazakh authorities and Western oil tankers. It formalizes the rise of national company KazMunaiGaz (KMG), who sees his part 8.33-16,81 through the consortium, on a par with those of Shell, ExxonMobil, ENI and Total ("Les Echos" from January 15).
Most importantly, this agreement marks a redistribution of the cards between the stakeholders. Very criticized, Italian ENI loses its role as operator for the benefit of a joint company called "North Caspian Operating Company" (NCOC). It will be based on a Total management system and will be led by a French until about 2015. Shell and KMG will however have the responsibility of the first phase of operation, expected to begin late 2012 - early 2013. The next phase, planned for 2015, ExxonMobil will cover drilling, Shell offshore installations of surface and ENI facilities ashore. "Kashagan is taken in ice 4 to 5 months of the year." "With the deposit of Sakhalin, Shell and ExxonMobil have strong experience in this field", said Pierre Terzian, editor of the magazine "Pétrostratégies".
"Gas factory".
For Total, this new Assembly is an extraordinary opportunity: "the opportunity to benefit from enormous prestige in the region by presenting Kashagan on track", said an expert in the sector. Gain significant when it is known that Central Asia will be one of the major oil regions of tomorrow. It is also a contrast. The original Total had a good chance to be the operator of Kashagan since the Kazakh authorities did not wish to entrust the project to a giant. Faced with the hostility of the Anglo-Saxon, French had nevertheless seen ENI to win the last.
Released on saddle, Total now has a mountain before him. The technical challenges remain huge (size of the deposit, extreme environment, presence of deadly gas, inability to use conventional offshore facilities...). And the new organization is similar to a gas plant. "The magnitude and complexity of the Kashagan project impose a modus operandi a bit non-standard." "This is not the dominant model in the oil sector, but it is widely used in the Middle East," said Yves-Louis Darricarrère, Executive Director exploration and production of the Total Group. Keep the calendar under these conditions will be the challenge. But for the new pattern of Kashagan, Pierre offering, this will be the most beautiful way to finish his career.
