Registration document 2007 - Total.com

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Appendix 2 – Supplemental oil and gas information (unaudited)
Other information
The following table sets forth a breakdown of capitalized exploratory costs at year end 2006, 2005 and 2004 by category of exploratory
activity:
As of December 31 (in M€) 2006 2005 2004
Projects with recent or planned exploratory activity 815 482 389
Wells for which drilling is not completed 132 63 91
Wells with drilling in past 12 months 341 200 126
Wells with future exploratory activity firmly planned (a) 342 219 172
Future exploratory drilling planned 248 156 148
Other exploratory activity planned (b) 94 63 24
Projects with completed exploratory activity 77 108 41
Projects not requiring major capital expenditure 0 0 0
Projects requiring major capital expenditure 77 108 41
Total 892 590 430
Number of wells at end of year 117 85 56
(a) All projects included in this line require major capital expenditures.
(b) As of the end of 2006, this relates to six wells whose continuing capitalization is justified by firmly planned seismic activity for two wells (subject to the completion of the legislative
ratification of contracts regarding one well) and significant studies for the remaining four wells
At the end of 2006, there was no amount of capitalized exploratory
drilling cost that was associated with areas not requiring major
capital expenditures before production could begin, where more
than one year had elapsed since the completion of drilling.
At the end of 2006, an amount of 77 M€ was associated with
suspended wells in areas where major capital expenditures will be
required and no future exploratory activity is firmly planned. This
amount corresponds to seven projects (20 wells) and is mainly
associated to the projects further described below:
The first project (Usan) relates to a deepwater oil discovery in
Nigeria for which eight wells were drilled between 2001 and 2005
and 27 M€ were capitalized as of December 31, 2006. These
exploration works allowed the Group to launch several
development engineering studies in 2005 that went on in 2006.
The national oil company NNPC has approved a development plan
based on the construction of a Floating, Production, Storage and
Offloading (FPSO) facility, for which a call for tenders was issued.
Contractor bids are currently being evaluated.
TOTAL – Registration Document 2006
The second project (Laggan) relates to a deepwater gas discovery
in the UK (west of the Shetland Islands), for which one well has
been drilled in 2004 for a capitalized amount of 17 M€ as of
December 31, 2006. In 2006, TOTAL and its partners have
continued the geosciences studies required for the definition of the
field development concept and the appraisal of potential new
exploration areas. A task force was created with the neighboring
permits operators in order to promote a global development
strategy for the area.
The third project (Bonga SW) relates to a deepwater oil discovery
in Nigeria for which three wells were drilled between 2001 and
2003 and for which 7 M€ were capitalized as of
December 31, 2006. During 2006, together with the operator and
co-venturers, the Group worked on the elaboration of a field
development plan and continued negotiations aiming at possible
unitization of the field with adjacent licenses. This led to the
signature of a pre-unitization agreement with partners in 2006.
The following table sets forth the allocation by age of capitalized exploratory costs as well as the number of corresponding wells.
As of December 31 2006 2005 2004
(in M€ and number of wells) amount number amount number amount number
Wells for which drilling is not completed 132 19 63 12 91 13
Wells with completed drilling
• Less than 1 year 341 39 200 29 126 12
• Between 1 and 4 years 392 53 304 40 198 29
• Between 4 years and 8 years 19 4 23 4 15 2
• More than 8 years 8 2 - - - -
Total 892 117 590 85 430 56