Total Plans $206 Million Overhaul of Donges Refinery

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Total SA (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France), a leading integrated oil and gas company, has earmarked funds of $206 million for the scheduled overhaul of the Donges refinery, the firm's second largest refinery in France. More than 200 firms and 3,150 personnel will be engaged at the site during a two-month turnaround period, lasting from February 22 to April 20.

Total will spend $25.76 million to overhaul three distillation furnaces at the refinery and install new convection and radiation equipment. The company will also invest $77.29 million to set up a new amine gas desulfurization unit, a laboratory and a new torch, and to construct double lining for troughs along the border of the Loire River. Total will also invest an additional $12.89 million thoroughly evaluate 30,000 kilometers of pipes at the refinery, following an oil spill of 400 tons from the refinery into the Loire River in March 2008 caused by a pipe rupture.

Although half of the refinery's processing units will be shut down during the turnaround period, the downtime will not affect sales since the firm has reportedly made arrangements for storage of products to maintain full supply to customers.

The Donges refinery, located near Saint Nazaire on the Loire estuary, has a refining capacity of 229,700 barrels per day. In 2008, the refinery processed 9.3 million tons of crude oil, accounting for 12% of France's total refining capacity that year. The refinery has an annual operating budget of $296 million.

In January of this year, an error in the fuel mixture used in the refinery resulted in the contamination of 2.5 million liters of domestic heating fuel delivered to six wholesale dealers and more than 2,000 homes in the Brittany and Pays de la Loire regions. The firm advised affected households not to use their boilers and announced that it would provide compensation to the affected consumers.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.