Despite the devastating downturn of 2020, most global majors held up quite well during the market turmoil, a Rystad Energy comparative analysis reveals after measuring key upstream performance metrics. Total outshined all other peers, as the French company not only exceled in financial and operational performance, but also was the only major to replace all of the year’s produced resources. Total has been able to keep its operating cost per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) consistently below $5 in the past five years. Although it is not the leader among majors in this metric (BP is), Total is the major that achieved the strongest year-on-year cost reduction per boe in 2020 among peers whose costs were already in the below-$5 range. Rystad Energy estimates Total’s operating cost reduction at around 8.5%.
The company has also enjoyed good cash flow in the past couple of years, and together with Chevron, Total stands out for bringing down its investment ratio by more than 60% in 2020 compared to 2015. Both companies had 2020 investment ratios calculated to around 49%, a remarkable cash conservation improvement compared to the past.
Last but not least, in a year of poor overall exploration success for majors, Total pocketed close to 1 billion boe of newfound volumes last year, with 70% of these within Suriname’s Block 58 where the company acquired a 50% stake from Apache in December 2019. Total took over as operator of the block earlier this month after the fourth exploration well was completed – with yet another discovery at the Keskesi East-1 prospect.
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