Yucal Placer Project

Total S.A.
23 April 2004

  
                Venezuela's Yucal Placer Field Brought on Stream 
 
Paris, April 23, 2004 - Total announces that Phase 1 of the Yucal Placer gas
development, located around 100 kilometers southeast of Caracas, Venezuela, has
been brought on stream.

Total (69.5%), in partnership with Repsol YPF and Venezuela's Inelectra and
Otepi, was awarded the Yucal Placer Norte and Yucal Placer Sur blocks in 2001,
as part of the opening of the country's gas industry to private investment.
Operations are handled by a specially created company, Ypergas.

Phase 1 production will be around 100 million cubic feet of gas per day. The gas
is distributed via the national transmission grid. Phase 2 development would
increase production to around 300 million cubic feet per day from 2007.

Also in Venezuela, Total is the main shareholder (47%) in the Sincor project to
upgrade extra heavy crude oil from the Orinoco Belt to produce around 180,000
barrels of syncrude per day. It also pumps 31,000 barrels of light crude per day
from the Jusepin field (55%) in northeastern Venezuela.

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Total is the fourth largest oil and gas company in the world with operations in
more than 130 countries. Total's activities cover the whole energy chain of the
petroleum industry: exploration, oil and gas production, refining and marketing,
trading and power generation. The Group is also a major player in chemicals
through its chemicals branch, Atofina. Total has 121,500 employees worldwide.
More information can be found on the company's website: www.total.com


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