Total is the fifth largest integrated major oil and gas producer in the world. On November 15, Albert Elliot, the Vice President of Human Resource, Communication and Administration of Total E&P Canada came to University of Waterloo to give a speech titled Energy in Motion.

A difficult time

Elliot began by saying that the energy industry today is to complex and hard to define. Companies can no longer work alone to solve global issues and cooperation is needed.

The Hot topics that sparks controversy includes but not limited to:

• Hydro dams : great environmental challenge and huge impact to local communities and cultures.
• Coal: one of the major source of energy but also create pollution such as carbon dioxide and GHG.
• Nuclear: risky and will have great environmental and social impact when incidents occur.
• Wind: Pricy and inefficient. Seasonal birds are reported dead because of windmill.
• Oil: Non renewable energy source.

Despite these controversy, the demand for energy is increasing tremendously, with the majority of demands come from developing countries. China is expected to have 98% increase in energy production from 2008 to 2035. India is expected to have 148% increase in the same period. These countries hope to enjoy the development and productivity that the western countries have been enjoying for years. It put western countries into difficult ethical dilemma as to encourage or discourage such desire.

Global demand

Based on the statistics in 2007,  the global energy is still created by the big 3 sources: 45% from oil, 26.9% from coal and 20.9% from gas. Elliot reassured the audience that new resource are continually being discover and the supply of fossil fuel is not going to deplete in 10 years. According to his prediction, it can still last for 100~145 years. However, it is necessary to discover new energy sources and gradually diversify the way energy is supplied. He noted that Canada is becoming an important player in natural resources. Canada has 3rd largest reserve in heavy oil, following Saudi Arabia and Golf of Mexico, and is 2nd hydroelectricity producer following China, and top uranium producer in the world. Canada has the world largest oil sand deposit in Alberta which all major energy company has been focusing on. A total of 20 billion is going to invest in mining Canada’s oil sand and total is having a joint venture with Suncor energy in two mega mining project in Fort MacMuray. Elliot predict that Fossil fuels is still going to be the main source of energy is the foreseeable future.

Total operations

Elliot then gave an introduction to Total’s operation in Canada. Besides mining projects, total owns Bostik, a major producer of adhesive and sealant; Atotech, a chemical manufacturing company; Total Lubricant, a producer of engine oil, solvent, lubricant and synthetic oil; and Progress Plastiques, a Qubec based company producing protective coating for the wings of  aeroplanes. Total is determined to bring integrated business model, R&D, mega projects, partnership and collaboration to Canada.

All Total’s projects are joint venture. The reason is to make use of the synergy created by pooling resources, sharing practices to maximize environmental and social performance. Elliot believed that results can be achieved faster this way.

Total in the globe

Total has operation around the globe. In Canada they parner with Suncor and Teck. In Asia they partner with Inpex and Sinopec. In America they partner with Oxy and Conocophillps. They are a member of OSLI, Oil Sand Leadership Initiative, OSTC, Oil Sands Tailings Consortium, and CONRAD, the Canadian Oilsand Network for Research And Development.

From 2009 to 2014, Total is going to invest 7.1 Billions in Education and R&D, in which about 20M/ year will go to Canada. The distribution is as follows: Environment 10%; technology 20%; product 35%; resource 35%.

Sustainability

Total keeps environment concerns at heart. The major area of interests are air water and land.

Air

• increase energy efficiency,
• reduce pollution;

Water

• reduce water consumption and
• hopes to recycling 90% of the water.
• improve treatment of waste water;

land

• reduce foot print on land,
• rehabilitation programs,
• compensation to the communities.

Communities

Total coined the term Creating Share Values when dealing with First Nations. They want to ensure treat rights are respected. Cumulative impact is at minimum. Cultural preservation are respected and business opportunity are provided.

The challenges the industry faced includes regulatory challenges; economic challenges such as carbon tax and high breakeven; and technology challenges with new sources of energy. For Total, the major challenges includes reduction of  impact to environment, culture and local communities; the path to diversify energy supply still need to be paved and they need people and talents to tackle challenges of the new age.

Why choose Total?

Total provide a diverse career options, very good opportunity in research and development. Elliot note that 30% of the core workers in the energy sector are expected to retire by 2020. This account for 39,000 people. Total expects to hire 18,000 people by 2018 in which one-third of them will be engineers. They need petroleum engineers, electrical engineers, environment engineers, process engineer, quality engineers, civil engineers and mechanical engineers. Elliot said they will provide a 3 years new grad orientation program to let them experience different area of the industry. Field operation will be included to help new grads to fulfill P.Eng requirement. He said that Total provide competitive salary for new grads, which can be as high as 74,000~77,000 for new grads. He mocked that he heard a student got an offer for only 40,000 for a position in Ontario.