The Moscow Times: Total Sees Russia as Biggest Source of its Oil Output by 2020
France's Total expects the biggest share of its oil and gas output to come from Russia by 2020 and plans to stay there for the long haul despite recent tensions with the West over Ukraine, a top executive said.
Total executives said they expected its production in Russia to soar to 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or boe/d, by around 2020, almost doubling from 207,000 boe/d last year, thanks to its partnership with Russia's Novatek and their giant Yamal LNG project in Siberia.
Its Russian operations would therefore overtake those in Norway and Nigeria, which have been vying for the top position in its production portfolio in the past few years but have struggled to keep output rising at mature oil fields.
"Russia is a country that has large resources, oil and gas, conventional and nonconventional. We have good partnerships," Michael Borrell, Total's exploration and production chief for continental Europe and Central Asia, told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference on Wednesday.