Centre News

In June, students from ESCP Business School’s MSc in Energy Management (MEM) visited TotalEnergies’ Normandy platform. The trip was organised by the School’s Energy Management Centre (EMC) and Energy Society, along with students from the MEM specialisation. This was a unique opportunity for the students to gain key insights into a refinery's operations through a guided tour by professionals from the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) and refining units.

Located in north-western France, the refinery came into service in 1931, and the petrochemical plant started production in 1971, while the two were merged in 2012. The Normandy platform is TotalEnergies’ second largest, processing nearly fourteen million tons of crude oil annually after Antwerp.

About the Visit & Lessons Learnt

The tour started at 10 am, and the students were first briefed by engineers at the CCGT plant. The ground trip started with a visit to the incoming natural gas lines, followed by the turbine chamber, the alternator and the transformers leading to the transmission lines. The second part of the combined cycle is steam generation, where additional natural gas is used to assist in producing steam in boilers to meet the refinery’s requirements.

In the second part of the trip, the group was taken on a guided tour of the refinery. Collocated with Le Havre port, the refinery mainly processes light and medium-sulphur crude, which comes from Total’s E&P and other suppliers. The students received valuable insights on storage units, distillation setups and input-output lines, and were also briefed about safety installations and procedures.

“The trip was very insightful for our cohort. It helped us to relate the development of such large-scale energy projects with their operations, equipment, and product slate varying with demand, and how all of them are converted to cash flows. Combined with conceptual classroom learning about managing assets, supply-demand, and trading of crude, refined products, natural gas and electricity, the class learnt about the challenges faced on ground zero,” said Hoshung Shin, an MSc in Energy Management student.