Production Start Up, etc

Total Fina S.A.
6 January 2000

First Commercial Production Starts in the Kuito
Deepwater Oil Field on Block 14 Offshore Angola

TOTALFINA and its partners Chevron, Sonangol, Agip and Petrogal announced today
the production start up of the Kuito field on Block 14 offshore Cabinda, Angola,
at a water depth of approximately 400 meters.  TOTALFINA holds a 20% interest in
the Block, Chevron is operator with 31%, while Sonangol holds 20%, Agip 20% and
Petrogal 9%.
Kuito is the first deepwater oil field offshore Angola to start commercial
production.  The first cargo was lifted on December 30, 1999.  Its start-up only
two and half years after discovery in May 1997 represents an outstanding
achievement.

Output is expected to reach 50,000 b/d of oil in the near future before
increasing to approximately 100,000 b/d during the first half of 2000.

During the initial development phase, oil is being lifted by twelve producing
wells, four water-injection wells and one gas-injection well.  These underwater
facilities are linked to a Floating Process Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel
through a piping and manifolds network.  The FPSO vessel is connected to a
loading buoy where export tankers will tie up to load the crude oil.
The associated gas production will supply facilities and will be reinjected into
the reservoir.

As these operations proceed, the partners on Block 14 are investigating the
potential for developing two other fields, Benguela and Belize, which were
discovered respectively in June and October 1998.

TOTALFINA is present in Angola as a partner with a 27.5% interest on Block
2-80/85 operated by Texaco, which currently produces 80,000 b/d.  The Group is
also operated onshore in the Soyo region of Angola with an output of 15,000 b/d.

In addition, TOTALFINA holds a 5% interest in the highly promising Block 17,
where the Girassol field is being developed.  Other partners in this field
include operator Elf Aquitaine with a 35% interest.  TOTALFINA owns 94.93% of
Elf Aquitaine as of end of October.  The two companies are awaiting approval
from the European Commission to finalize their merger, and a decision is
expected in mid-February 2000.