Letter of Intent Signed

Total Fina Elf.
5 November 2002


             TotalFinaElf and Sonatrach sign letter of intention 
           for the purchase of natural gas via the Medgaz project 

Paris, November 5, 2002 - TotalFinaElf and the national Algerian oil and gas
company Sonatrach have signed a letter of intent governing the purchase by the
Group of one billion cubic metres of Algerian gas per year. The gas will be
delivered to TotalFinaElf in Europe via the future pipeline connecting Algeria
directly to Spain, currently under study by the company Medgaz.

Sonatrach and TotalFinaElf have a respective 20% and 12% stake in the Medgaz
project along with Cepsa (20%), BP, GDF, Endesa and Eni (each with 12%). The
pipeline, of a planned capacity of 8 billion cubic metres of gas per year and
with the possibility of increasing capacity to 16 billion cubic metres per year,
will be laid at water depths of more than 2000 metres.

In Algeria, TotalFinaElf was recently awarded an exploration permit for the
Timimoun fields and is joint operator with Sonatrach in the Algerian natural gas
field Tin Fouye Tabankort. Furthermore, TotalFinaElf is partnered with the
national Algerian oil and gas company for production in the Hamra gas field.

With this agreement TotalFinaElf continues to strengthen its position in gas
trading and marketing in Europe, particularly in Spain. It also confirms
TotalFinaElf's commitment to develop new infrastructure as concerns gas
transport, such as Medgaz.




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange