Every day, billions of companies and individuals use oil and gas to commute, work, heat homes and offices and perform many other activities. We buy and sell this oil and gas around the world. Our teams work to maximize the value of our products, secure supply to our refineries and transport energy to consumer hubs, all while managing the related financial and logistical risks. We are active in 120 countries where we deal with all aspects of oil and gas trading, including physical trading, derivatives and shipping.
An integrated energy operator with a global network
Marketing oil and gas all over the world at the right price means managing two important variables:
- Financial markets and price risks linked to market volatility, which depend on a number of economic, geopolitical and even climate-related factors.
- Arranging shipping from production areas to consumer hubs worldwide under optimal safety conditions and in a timely, cost-effective way.
To rise to these challenges, our trading & shipping teams around the world work in close collaboration with TotalEnergies' Upstream and Downstream business segments, forming a one-stop shop on oil and gas markets. This optimizes transactions and means that we are equipped to offer tailored solutions to a wide range of players, from producers, transporters and refiners to financial institutions and industrial firms.
We trade with an extensive global network of partners every day, affording us a highly diversified range of resources and supply sources to complement our production volumes. This maximizes the chances of selling both our own and our partner producers’ production while securing supply flows to our refineries and our distribution system.
Trading: maximizing the value of our own and our customers’ assets
Every day, our traders deal in oil and gas markets. Their mission is to maximize the value of our production, supply our refineries under the best market conditions and import and export products to match supply to demand in local markets. In addition, they are tasked with managing risks, in particular to limit our exposure to sometimes extreme price fluctuations.
Thanks to our expertise and experience in oil markets, we have developed monitoring and decision-support tools at the cutting-edge of trading. Our teams enjoy a global view of real-time flows and segment information, around the clock. As a result, we can respond to developments with the agility needed to maximize the value of our own assets and those of our customers.
Shipping: transporting oil and gas
We organize the transportation of oil and gas from production areas to major consumer hubs. We select and charter the safest vessels to ensure that cargo is shipped in the most timely, cost-effective way and, naturally, under optimal safety conditions.
Leveraging a leading maritime transportation network
In 2021, we chartered nearly 2,700 vessels to transport 120 million metric tons of crude oil and petroleum products. We maintain a permanent fleet of nearly 47 time-chartered vessels. We apply one of the most rigorous selection standards in the oil industry for every ship we use, especially those in our fleet. To make sure each vessel meets our standards, our vetting process notably evaluates the condition of the equipment, ship maintenance, crew quality and operating procedures on board.
In 2021, we sold more than 42 million metric tons of LNG. We transported this gas on board ultra-high-performance LNG carriers capable of maintaining an extreme cold chain (-163°C) between the liquefaction site and the regasification plant.
Ice-Class LNG Carriers: Opening Up a Whole New Sea Lane
Technological marvels, ice-class LNG carriers can reliably and regularly transport large shipments of Arctic LNG to consumer hubs. Thanks to this innovative solution, we are able to use the Northern Sea Route via the Bering Strait in the summer without the assistance of ice-breakers, meaning it takes half the time to ship cargo between Sabetta and Asia than it would along the route via Europe and the Suez Canal.
Our onshore infrastructure
We have access to advanced infrastructure for transporting hydrocarbons across land through interests in some 30 gas pipelines worldwide. This enables us to efficiently deliver our gas and oil from fields to storage centers and major consumer hubs.
LNG requires a specific supply chain that includes regasification terminals, as the liquefied gas must be converted back into its gaseous state before it is injected into distribution networks. Whether through acquired interests or reserved regasification capacity, we currently conduct our activities at six sites and soon at a seventh site that is currently under construction: Dunkerque, Montoir and Fos Cavaou (France), South Hook and Isle of Grain (United Kingdom), Zeebruges (Belgium) and soon Dhamra (India).
