Bloomberg: Total Expects to Resume Elgin Output Before Year-End After Leak

Total SA (FP), Europe’s third-largest oil company, expects to resume production at its Elgin and Franklin fields before the end of 2012 after plugging a natural-gas leak

“The worst-case scenario is that we can’t restart before the end of year,” said Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardiere in an interview today. The cost of lost production and plugging the North Sea well may reach about $400 million by the end of this year, a fraction of the slump in the company’s market capitalization since the leak erupted March 25, he said.

“What is clear is that the market overreacted to the incident,” he said. The company estimates it’s undervalued by 4 percent to 5 percent compared with its European peers. MORE