LONDON (Reuters) - French oil major Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Tuesday it based its projects on oil at $80 a barrel, but to allow for a range of price outcomes, it also looked at the implications of oil at $60 and $100.
"Our strategy is clearly based on an increasing price," Yves-Louis Darricarrere, head of exploration and production at Total, told the Reuters Global Energy Summit.
U.S. crude prices have doubled in the past 12 months to a record above $135 a barrel hit in May.
"When we are looking at a project, we are always conservative," he said.
"We are testing them as well at $60 to see if by any chance, if during a period of time the price was down, how that would impact on the project... We're looking as well at prices around
$100."
Asked whether Total took into account the rising oil price as a base price for its projects, Darricarrere said: "We are not basing our decisions on $110 but more on $80."
Total's working figures compare with BP's (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) assumption of oil at $60. BP has said it tested projects on a lower price level, but has not specified by how much.
Darricarrere added that it was also key to assume rising costs and taxes.
"We are clearly in a different environment," he said.
"If we were basing ourselves on $110-$120, our strategy would not be changed, it would still be based on organic growth, on the development of heavy oils and liquefied natural gas," he added.
(Reporting by Muriel Boselli, editing by Barbara Lewis)
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