TotalFinaElf Begins Work On Matterhorn

TotalFinaElf has begun the development start-up of the Matterhorn oil field in Mississippi Canyon Block 243 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The field, wholly owned and operated by TotalFinaElf E&P USA, is located approximately 105 miles southeast of New Orleans in a water depth of 2,790 feet. The development plan calls for Matterhorn to come onstream in the second half of 2003, to reach a production rate of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at the end of the year.

Matterhorn will be developed with a floating structure, comprising the wellheads and the separation and treatment installations. The platform will have a throughput capacity of 33,000 barrels of oil per day and more than 55 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Production will be brought to shore through connections to the existing subsea pipeline network.

The Matterhorn project, which follows the November 2000 launch of the Canyon Express natural gas gathering project, further strengthens TotalFinaElf's position in the US upstream and is in line with the group's strategy of increasing production in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.