Total Deepens South American Ties

French oil company Total is considering building a second heavy crude upgrade project in Venezuela. The company already has a 47% stake in the Sincor project, which currently manufactures 160,000-165,000 barrels a day of light sweet 30-degree API synthetic crude from production of 190,000-195,000 barrels a day of heavy crude.

Other owners are Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA (38%) and Norway's Statoil (15%).

Venezuelan newspaper La Hora reported that royalties under Venezuela's existing regulations may be too high to make the project viable, but Total spokesperson Paul Floren told BNamericas that "there are lots of different factors that would make a project economical, not just tax law,"