An authority in energy
Elf Aquitaine ranks among the world's top ten oil and gas groups. Its exploration and production efforts span some 29 countries, and daily production now exceeds one million barrels of oil equivalent. Elf Aquitaine is Europe's fourth largest producer of natural gas. Employing some 400 people, Elf Petroleum Norge is a fully owned company of the Elf Aquitaine Group.

The North Sea boom
For 500 years, Stavanger was a quiet little fishing and ship building city on Norway's southwestern Atlantic coast. But that all changed in the late 1960s. Large reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered under the North Sea. Large scale exploration and recovery began. And one launching pad for those operations was Stavanger. Almost overnight, the city transformed into a focal point of the global energy market. The North Sea fields are Europe's main oil and natural gas resource, critical for the European economies. Crude oil production reached a record 5.9 million barrels per day in the first half of 1998 according to the US Energy Information Administration. Several countries participate in this production, most importantly the UK and Norway. Norway is now the world's second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia.

Elf in Norway
With offices in Stavanger, Elf Petroleum Norge is a long-time player in the North Sea fields. Mr. Johannes Hausken is vice president of Elf Petroleum Norge: 'Elf was one of the pioneers here, active since 1965.The company discovered all the fields that it operates today. These include the Frigg as well as the Lille Frigg, East Frigg and Froy satellite fields. The Frigg was the largest field in the world when it was discovered.' In the late 1970s, the Frigg supplied 40% of all natural gas consumed in the UK. Exploration is the core business of Elf Petroleum Norge. Dozens of geologists, geophysicists and engineers carry out exploration and recovery in an ongoing engineering process, which brings some unique information handling requirements.

How to make a 150-metre copy?
Seismographic prospecting is the foundation of the energy industry. Investigators create artificial seismic waves at one point and measure their arrival at another. These profiles of the earth 's surface are recorded on print-outs some 45 centimetres wide and up to 150 metres long. Elf uses this information to steer exploration. Decisions based on these prints have vast economic implications. To copy such critical documents, Elf looks to Océ. Odd Egil Støldal is the regional sales manager for Océ in Stavanger. He is 100% Norwegian, but speaks American English with a slight Oklahoma twang, the result of many years' contact with American oil companies in Norway. Mr. Støldal: 'Océ has been active here since 1972. Our engineering copiers are some of the few products that can accept seismographic originals of this length and produce accurate copies. We've had originals so long that we had to run them in the front door and out the back.'  Elf uses Océ digital engineering copier/printers, both black/white and colour, to reproduce its investigations.

How to document a major industry?
Elf activities in Norway involve a huge reporting operation — to its partners in the industry, its suppliers and the government. With large numbers of people offshore, safety, security, maintenance and environmental issues must all be documented. Here, too, Océ provides a reliable answer. Mr. Hausken: 'There is a trend in the industry to reduce the number of contractors and work closely with a few, based on a higher level of trust. Several years ago we strengthened our relationship with Océ. That has worked perfectly.' Mr. Hausken is referring to a facilities management agreement with Océ, one of the first of its kind in Norway. The large central repro centre at Elf offices in Stavanger may look like an Elf department, but it is not.

The many Océ products are owned by Océ. And the people working there are Océ employees. Mr. Hausken: 'Our core business is gas and oil exploration and production. But we are dependent on good information handling to do that. That 's Océ's core business. We count on their copying and printing expertise to help us do our business better.'