France NEWS

This Tuesday history will be made with the start of the machine assembly of the world's largest experimental fusion reactor at ITER facility in southern France. The event will be Live on Youtube in the presence of government officials from seven ITER members, including India. The launch demonstrates the willingness of 30,000 people of the 35 partner countries to join together in an enduring way in their common fight against climate change.

Oil supermajor, Total has awarded a contract renewal to CGG's Geoscience division, to continue operations at its Dedicated Processing Center (DPC) in France. The contract renewal will extend CGG's activities for the next five years. The two firms have been collaborating at the DPC since 2006. The DPC has been recognized for excellence, especially in 4D processing.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Monday said that the oil and gas firms must increase their investment in low-carbon energies. Otherwise, they would face a global backlash that could jeopardize their long-term profits and social acceptance. “Every part of the industry needs to consider how to respond. Doing nothing is simply not an option,” IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol said. IEA suggested the sector to boost investments in the cleaner fuels.

With the sudden rise in the supply and demand of the super-chilled fuel, Kpler and Powernext are planning to launch a trading platform for LNG in Singapore this year. Both the companies have set up Spark Commodities in Singapore which is majorly owned by Kpler. Spark will aim at creating a paltform for physical buyers and sellers of LNG by the fourth quarter of the present fiscal year.

Energy major Total has signed a 10-year sales and purchase deal with China's independent gas company Guanghui. Under the scope of this contract 0.7 million tonnes of liquified petroleum gas will be sourced from Total's global portfolio and supplied into Guanghui's regasification terminal annualy. This deal has been signed between Total and Guanghui International Gas Trading Co Ltd, a unit of Guanghui Energy.

French supermajor Total has announced the restart of its Gonfreville refinery in France’s Normandy region. Operations at the 253,000 barrel-per-day refinery were disrupted due to a week-long strike that affected output and deliveries. The CGT union of France put off the on-going strike on Thursday evening. A Total spokeswoman confirmed the news, stating that the deliveries had resumed on Friday.

Pay and bonus dispute has led to a two-day strike in Total's refineries and petrochemical facilities in France. This has been initiated by CGT trade union of France and may be extended if the demands are not met. The date of strike will be Nov. 21 and Nov. 22. The trade union has complained that though Total has reported profits but has maintained a freeze on bonuses.

French engineering firm, GTT has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korea’s Dongsung Finetec to commercialise its LNG Brick® technology. LNG Brick offers an economical and competitive solution with an LNG fuel tank capacity below 3000 cubic meter. Both the firms are looking forward to promote the technology for LNG as fuel applications. Dongsung will construct the solution, to be outfitted on a variety of commercial vessels.

Terming it “way off from agreement”, Unite workers have rejected the revised pay offered by French supermajor, Total. Workers on North Sea platforms entered a dispute in July over plans by Total to enforce three weeks on, three weeks off (3/3) working patterns. According to Unite, further strikes will be organized if the meeting scheduled for Thursday doesn't give fruitful results.

CGG of France has received a five-year contract from Petronas Carigali, a subsidiary of Petroliam Nasional Berhad, for the development of Center for Advanced Imaging. They have agreed to collaborate to get access to CGG’s latest technological advancement. CAI will help to fast-track tailored seismic processing and give closer and direct communication facility with imaging geophysicists. It will also provide multi-physics data from Petronas’ domain from all over the world.

The oil major of France, Total, along with its partners, has decided to sell its Alberta’s Joslyn oil sands project. The oil sands project will be sold to Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) in Canadian $225 million. Total had 38.25% stake in Joslyn project. CEO of Total said that this move will lower their exposure to Canada’s oil sands but their strategy now is to focus on low breakeven resources.

Workers have went for a strike at three of Total’s North Sea platform of oil and gas, namely, Elgin, Dunbar and Alwyn over the issue of changes in their pay and working rotas. Though the workers had a talk with the company on Thursday but they still decided for a 24-hour strike on Monday. Furthermore, the strikes are planned for September 3 and 17, October 1, 15 and 29.

CNPC, China’s energy major has taken over 50.1% stakes of the South Pars gas project previously held by France’s Total. This project is Iran’s multi-billion dollar project. Earlier CNPC had only 30% stake in the project. The French oil major signed a deal to develop phase II of the project in 2017. The French oil giant had warned to walk out in the absence of a waiver from US sanctions.

Staff working at Total’s Shetland Gas Plant yesterday accepted an improved pay deal from the oil major. The improved pay covers a 15% increase in the base salary alongwith a “significant” retention bonus. Total also agreed to the retention of 3/3 rota on the basis of 168 working days, inclusive of 2 weeks of holiday. The firm has assured no negative change in the rota for three years.

French supermajor, Total today completed the acquisition of electric utility company, Engie’s upstream LNG business, in a deal amounting to $1.5 billion. The deal will increase Total’s overall LNG portfolio to around 40 million tonnes per year by 2020, with a 16.6% interest in Engie’s Cameron LNG project. This acquisition has made Total the second-largest player in the global LNG market.

UK-headquartered TechnipFMC has inked a cooperation agreement with Dallas-based Oxy Vinyl to provide with licensing support of its Ethylene Di-Chloride (EDC) and Vinyl Chloride Monomer (VCM) technologies. OxyVinyls holds the largest market interest in licensing of both technologies. The agreement will be managed by TechnipFMC’s operating center in Lyon, France. The center will also carry on the execution of the process design packages.

Total, the French oil major, has decided to make an investment of $1.2b to stimulate offshore production in Angola. Angola is the second-largest oil producer in Africa, though a period of lower oil prices and field maturation are curbing its potential. Total has regarded this new investment as the opening of a "new chapter" in the deep waters of Angola. Total leads a consortium developing the Zinia 2 offshore development.