Total aims to expand their footprint in the UAE

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Abu Dhabi: A top executive of the French energy company Total said that their operations in the UAE have not been impacted due to the drop in oil prices.

“The drop in oil price has not neither impacted our operations nor our ambitions within the UAE. We are going ahead with all our projects and have plans to expand our footprint,” Hatem Nuseibeh, President of Total Exploration and Production in the UAE, told Gulf News.

“If you look at all the oil producing countries in the world, the UAE is a special one due to very large quantities of reserves. We know the reservoirs very well and technical risks are limited. From the political point of view, it’s a perfect place to work because of the stability.”

Oil prices have fallen by more than 50 per cent since last year due to oversupply and weak demand.

From $115 (Dh422) in June last year, oil prices fell to less than $50 in January before recovering.

A crucial meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is due to take place in Vienna next week to take stock of the situation and decide the future course of action in the wake of the oil price slump.

“Everybody is waiting to see what decisions will be taken at the Opec meet and what will be the impact on oil price,” said Nuseibeh said about the meeting.

Speaking about Abu Dhabi concessions, he said it is a partnership in all aspects, not only in finance but also in technology transfer.

“We already started a technical hub to connect the IT (Information Technology) of Adco (Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations) to the IT of Total worldwide so that Adco personnel can have access to our programmes and research projects. We are going to put in place strong presence of Total within Adco and train UAE nationals.”

Total bagged a 10 per cent stake in Adco concession in January to develop onshore oilfields for a period of forty years.

It is the first company to be awarded the contract. Japanese company Inpex was given 5 per cent stake and South Korea’s GS Energy 3 per cent. Other companies are yet to be decided by Abu Dhabi government.

Total is said to have paid $2.2 billion to win the concession though the company did not comment on it.

“I hope we will be involved in future energy in the UAE whether in terms of ameliorating the recovery from the reservoirs or in terms of importation of gas from outside.”

“We are also planning to be part of offshore concession, which will expire in 2018. Our footprint in the UAE is expanding. We are involved in various projects including lubricants trading to solar power.”

By Fareed Rahman Senior Business Reporter