Making archives accessible

When companies merge or close down often nobody cares about their archives. That´s why a lot of company archives disappear. With them disappear some parts of our heritage as well. This did not happen with the archives of the oil companies Total Norge AS and Fina Exploration Norway SCA. They went to the state archive in Stavanger where they were assessed, catalogued, packed and treated in a way that allows interested people to come, find things they are looking for and read in the records.

In my lecture I am going to talk about the practical work with the archival material from the time the decision to keep the archives in the state archive was made until they stand in the magazines. I will start with a short history of the companies. After that I will talk about the background of the project – the most important aspects of this you have already heard yesterday from Wenche Sandsundet-Hansen. The main part will be about the practical work we have done. I am going to finish with a short presentation of the archives.

In July 1999 Fina Exploration Norway SCA and Total Norge AS merged. Total took over the administrative and operational responsibility for the activities of Fina in Norway. Fina´s office in Stavanger was closed down. The company kept the name Total Norge AS in Norway. One year later Total merged with Elf Petroleum Norge AS. The name changed to TotalFinaElf Exploration Norge AS. Until the merger, Total and Fina were independent actors on the Norwegian shelf.

Norske Fina AS, which later changed its name to Fina Exploration Norway SCA, was founded in 1959 as a daughter company of the Belgian company Petrofina. Fina was operator for the production licence PL 150 and owned parts in the fields Ekofisk, Tommeliten and Snøhvit, which were the most important.

Total Marine Norsk AS was founded 19^th of July 1965. The only owner of the company was the French Total-group. The company changed its name to Total Norge AS in 1991. The company was operator of the fields Hild and Peik. Furthermore, Total owned parts in a lot of production licences and transportation systems.

During the merger between Total and Elf in the year 2000, Total’s archivist Ann Tove Manshus contacted the Norwegian Oil Museum in Stavanger to talk about the archives of the oil company. Through the Oil Museum the state archive was involved. This was the beginning of the co-operation between the oil company TotalFinaElf on one side and institutions which work to conserve and interpret historical documents and history on the other side. A steering group was formed, the members of which were Wenche Sandsundet-Hansen from TotalFinaElf, Torkel Thime from the state archive and Nils Henrik Fuglestad from the Norwegian Oil Museum. Fuglestad left and Kristin Øye Gjerde from the same institution took over his duties. This group had the decision making responsibility for the project.

The practical work was done by Inger Katrine Barstad from TotalFinaElf and Anne Lise Kirkerud from the state archive. After she left I continued her work.

The archive magazines in Oslo held the archives of Total and Fina. There were x metres of records in total. It was decided to transfer 550 metres to the state archive as part of the project. These records were not important for the everyday work of the company. Other documents like seismic evaluations and legal documents were kept at TotalFinaElf.

For us, who were working with the practical accomplishment the work started with moving of the material from Oslo to Stavanger because the Oslo-office of TotalFinaElf was closed down. It was decided that the material from each single shelf in the Oslo-magazine should be packed into one moving box respectively so that in this way it would be possible to put the records onto the shelves in Stavanger in the same order. It went fine but in some shelves there was too much material so that we had to use a second moving box.

In Stavanger the material was delivered to a storage building and put onto shelves by Inger Katrine Barstad and Anne Lise Kirkerud. In the storage building we got help from the men working there with carrying the moving boxes as they were very heavy.

When everything was in place in the storage building we thought about how to manage a big archive we were not 100% sure about what the content was. At the beginning we had no file keys or other information that could help us. That is why we decided to register every record.

The requirement for the registration was that it should contain a description of every record. It should give a good overview over the documents in the archive for TotalFinaElf and it should be possible to process the archive further without having to pick up every file once again. It was decided to create a table in Excel. To describe every record in the archive in a proper way, we collected information about:

• the place in the archive: serial number, shelf code
• information about the archive itself: file codes, notes
• information about the creator of the archive/record: company, department, person
• other information: external sender
• description: name of the oil- or gas field, transportation system or project; number of the production licence, block on the continental shelf, well, content of the record
• period, date

Information about the place in the archive is important to retrieve the records again in the archive. We found out that the easiest way was to give every record a serial number.

File codes we found on some pieces gave us information about the archive itself. We did not want to omit these, that is why we created this category.

Already before we started to register we knew that the material came from two different sources – the oil companies Total and Fina. To know even more exact who created the record we registered the department where it was created and the person who created it as well.

The category "External sender" was created for documents that had not been produced in the oil company. We thought mostly about reports prepared by research institutes like Rogalandsforskning or other oil companies.

The description of the record shall say something about the content. Oil companies are in charge of oil- and gas fields and transportation systems and also carry out research projects. Therefore, we registered information about these. To be a little bit more precise we also registered, where possible, the number of the production licence, the block on the continental shelf the documents were about and the well number. Under the category "Title" we described the content. First we tried to note down the title written on the back of the record, but we found out that this often did not coincide with what was inside the boxes and folders.

The last category we established was the period in which the record was created.

For registering all pieces in the archive we needed 9 month. It was a hard job which demanded a lot of precision and patience. At the end we had registered 6873 records.

Before moving the material from the oil company to the state archive we had to assess the material and to decide what should be kept.

There are some basic rules in archives for which records or documents do not belong into a special archive.

Duplicates or copies of documents should not be kept, if there is not a special link to other documents in the record.

Documents or printed copies of reports and so on, which were not produced in the companies but in mother companies or other firms should not be kept, if there is no direct link to other documents in the record or other material in the archive. In the archives of Total and Fina we found material produced in the mother companies. We removed that and did not move it to the state archive. However, some of these things have a high visual quality. The Norwegian Oil Museum as a partner in this project was interested in them and took them over.

Other decisions we took were special for the project we worked with.

Some of the documents were important for the everyday work of the Exploration Department or the Human Resources Department in TotalFinaElf, so the company wanted to keep them in their own house.

Due to conservation considerations we decided to throw away the original telexes. They were printed on a paper which was not keeping the ink, making it impossible to read them any more.

During the process of decision making we thought about only keeping material from some oil fields and transportation systems to limit the material. We considered keeping only material from fields operated by Total and Fina, or from fields which were very big and important. But it was not possible to decide which fields or transportation systems were more important than others. Every oil field and transportation system is a part of the portfolio of the oil company. To retain only the records of some oil fields or transportation systems and to destroy others would mean to amputate the archive. And it would be more work to pick the records and destroy them than to keep them. That is why we decided to keep all the material we had not thrown away yet.

After we took the decisions and "cleaned" the archive from material that should not be kept, we started to pack the archive into special folders and boxes. Usually, the archive has to be systematized and catalogued first but we had to move the material from TotalFinaElf´s storage building to the state archive. To reduce the moving volume we packed the material already then.

After moving the systematisation and cataloguing was done at the state archive.

One of the main principles of systematising archives is the principle of provenience. It means that the archive should be kept or brought back to the original order. To achieve this it is important to understand the organisation of the institution, the structure of the archives, the work flow and so on. Already while we were registering the material we were aware of material which could help us to find out more about the oil companies and their archives. We found organization charts, file keys, internal procedures, letters about changes in the organization, manuals and procedures for the Document Control Department and Archive, lists of employees among other things. All these things were a big help for us. But also the history of Total and Fina, written by Inger Katrine Barstad helped to understand the building of the archive and the organisation of the oil companies.

After reading the material, getting an overview over the records and discussions with colleagues we determined the main rules of systematising the archives.

Most of the records belonged to one department, were produced or stored there. Due to the principle of provenience the first rule was built on the organisation of the oil companies. It means that the material was organized according to the departments it was produced in. In most cases it was possible to find out which department had produced the material.

We had some problems in those cases where somebody was connected to two different departments. But a short look in the documents helped to find the right department.

Another problem we had to face was that the internal structures of the oil companies had changed through the years. But in the cases of Total and Fina it is possible to say that the main structures of the companies were the same through the years. While arranging the archive it was not possible to follow the changes in the organization. This would have made it impossible afterwards for the archive user to find the things he is interested in.

The other basic rule we followed was built on the organisational structures of the oil industry in general, which means that we chose to organize the material according to the oil- and gas fields, transportation systems or research projects. This structure you will find as well in the organisational structures of the oil companies, e.g. in Total, where the Participation Department was divided into Business Units. But with this rule we went a little bit beyond the principle of provenience and constructed the series because there was no original order we could follow and we thought this would ultimately make it easier for the users to find the material they need.

After we took these decisions, we started to arrange the material.

It was easy to see that the records came from 4 different sources:

• Total Norge AS and its predecessors,
• Fina Exploration Norway SCA and its predecessors,
• Petrofina, the mother company of Fina in Norway, and
• Unocal, an oil company which merged with Total in 1990.

In the following minutes I will talk mostly about Fina and Total. It was very easy to process the archives of the other oil companies. The material from Petrofina came from the legal department and was ordered. The material from Unocal comprised only a few boxes. So in both cases it did not take much time to think about the processing of the archive.

Because we had registered every record with the important information - that means: company, department, oil- and gasfield - in an Excel-Database the first step could happen on the monitor.

After the first step of systematizing were left with only a few records of which we didn’t know where they were produced or stored. After this we continued to arrange the records.

Some of the records – ca. 14 % of the material - had a file code. This material came from the Drilling- and Production-Department in Fina, from the Research- and Development-Department in Fina and from one project Fina carried out on Spitsbergen. From Total only the copies of the telexes were systematized in a proper way. For the rest of the material we could not find file keys or a former archive system.

The records that had a file code were easy to process. All the material belonging to the same file key system went in the same sub series. Here it was only necessary to go into the magazine, pick the relevant records, put them in the right order and catalogue them.

Because there was less material from Fina and it was partly with codes we decided to start with the material from this company. Like I said, the material from the Departments Drilling & Production, Research & Development and from the Spitsbergen-project already had file keys. But what should happen with the rest of the material? How detailed should the structure of the series be? Is it necessary and possible to have a series-code for every oil field, every research project? We decided to process the Fina-material in that way and to construct series. We decided to do this because we thought/think that it makes it easier for the user to find relevant material. While we were working we recognised that it took too much time to organize it in that way, that is why there are less series in the archive of Total.

Within each series we tried to arrange the material according to topics. We started with the reports, went on to minutes of meetings, at the end we had the material on special topics like financial questions, agreements and further more. Within the topics we arranged the material chronologically. We took these decisions to make the material better accessible for the user.

So the processing of the archives was a mixture of archivist principles and the idea that the archive should be easy to manage for the archivist and user alike. At the point where it was not longer possible for us to follow the archivist principles we had to construct the sequence of the records by ourselves.

After these decisions were taken, the systematisation on the screen was done, it was easy to go to the shelf, take the material out, clean it from plastic and metal, record the information in the registration programme ASTA and pack everything into steadily, acid free envelopes and boxes.

To catalogue we used - as is common in Norway - the registration programme ASTA (Archivesystem for everybody). In this programme some series have already been decided first hand. Some archives – often archives of companies or non-public institutions – have their own structure. Often this does not suit the series which are already decided in the ASTA-programme. If one can free oneself from these series it is possible to write in series which fit the structure of the company archive and the ASTA-programme alike.

While cataloguing it was decided to register everything up to the level of archive boxes or envelopes. If it was possible to describe the content of an archive box satisfyingly, it was not necessary to describe the envelops inside a box as well. For the titles we choose the original title on the shelf or box. To describe it a little bit better the content box in the ASTA-programme was used.

One problem we had to face while cataloguing was the question of the languages. The oil industry is an international business. At the beginning of the oil-adventure in Norway most of the people in higher positions were foreigners, but afterwards more and more Norwegians came into these positions. This development is possible to trace in the archive as well. At the beginning most of the documents were in English or French – because the mother companies of Fina and Total were from french-speaking countries. But with time more and more documents were written in Norwegian. It is possible to see that some departments are using the Norwegian language more than other departments, f. ex. the Administration Department. So, which language should we choose? To preserve the archive as original as possible we chose to use the original titles. If there was no title on the original record, the piece got a Norwegian title.

On the level of series we decided to use both an English and a Norwegian title, that users from abroad can get a short impression about the content of the archive.

We recognised that it can be difficult for a user to deal with the languages, but on the other hand it would have taken too much time to translate all titles. For the user this means that he or she has to search in three different languages, but English was most often used. That is why it is smart to start searching with this language.

After the project was finished we could claim to have organised, catalogued and made accessible 266 metres of archival material. 198,5 metres came from Total Norge AS, 60,3 metres came from Fina Exploration Norway SCA, 6 metres from Petrofina and 1,2 metres from Unocal.

We needed approximately 2 years to do this. In these 2 years Inger K. Barstad worked one year 100 %, Anne-Lise Kirkerud 4 month 50 % and Berit Bass one year and 8 month 80 %. This sounds like a lot of time. But within the archives here in Norway we consider that we need one working day to process one metre of archives. And because this project was a pilot-project and most of the things were new for all of us who were working with this, this time is within normal limits.

Now you have heard how we have worked with the archives. But because the overtaking (?) of the oil-archives is the reason for the conference, I will use the opportunity to present the archives a little bit and to show which questions could be asked to the material.

I start with the archive of Total Norge AS.

The archive of Total Norge AS contents 198,5 metres. More than half of this has its origin in the Participation Department, that means ca. 120 metres. The Participation Department was responsible for the development, accomplishment and compliance with strategies Total had on the Norwegian shelf both in accordance with the oil- and gas fields and transportation systems and other businesses. The Department had sub departments, so called Business Units, which are the sub series of the main series. These Units reflect different areas on the Norwegian shelf.

In the main series "Participation Department" all oil- and gas fields and transportation systems Total had parts of are represented. There are saved reports, calculations, minutes of meetings and correspondence. It is possible to see why which decisions were made.

Except from minutes of meetings and reports the records are working files of the employees. In one record more or less everything was collected that was connected with one field or project. This is mentioned in the title of the box as well.

Less material came from other Departments inside Total Norge AS. But I will mention the Technical Department which was responsible for research projects. Among the 5 metres from this Department you will find material from different research projects Total was involved in, as well as some working files about the cooperation with research institutes, like Rogalandsforskning, or universities.

The Department "Corporate Communication" should as well be mentioned. In this Department everything that should represent Total Norge AS was produced, that means Annual Reports and information leaflets. The department collected newspaper articles about Total, dealt with donations to organisations and sponsoring of culture and sports clubs. Among the material you will also find pictures of social arrangements organised by Total Norge AS. What I mentioned last is worth seeing when we are thinking about the influence of foreign employees on Norwegian everyday life and how foreigners and Norwegians were integrated.

At the end I will mention the Administration Department. Because we chose not to throw away other things as mentioned, you will find timesheets of the employees and travel reports here. Because Total is an international company and the oil industry is an international business the employees have to travel a lot. This is as well reflected in the travel reports. You can see which people in which positions were travelling and if there was a change over time.

Among the material from the Administration Department you will find as well folders about flats which were rented on behalf of the employees coming from abroad or starting to work for Total. Was there something special about these flats? Where have they been in the town? What can they say about the way of living of foreigners and Norwegians?

The Administration Department organised social arrangements for the employees and their families as well. It can be interesting to see if French traditions were brought to Norway and how the families of the expatriates were integrated into Norwegian society.

The other big archive we took over came from Fina Exploration Norway SCA. It has a dimension of 60 metres.

More than half of it comes from the Drilling & Production Department, that means 32 metres. 24 metres of this was an archive processed with a File Management System. We do not know if we got everything from the department. The File Management System has the main groups Research, Contracts, Agreements and material about different oil- and gas fields Fina was involved in. The most important were Tommeliten, Ekofisk and PL150.

From the Exploration Department we got 4 metres. 2 metres are coming from a project dealing with searching for oil on Spitsbergen around 1975. It was amazing to see how extensive the planning for such a small project was. Spitsbergen is, this is well known, a very sensitive ecological area. It can as well be interesting to see how the government and the company dealt with ecological questions at this time. Together with the records we took over some photo-albums from the project on Spitsbergen. Here you can see what the circumstances were like over the years. I have the impression that these pictures are unique.

From the Department Research & Development we got 9 metres. Most of the material is arranged using a code system, which Olaf Gram, the leader of the department designed in the 1980-ies. Here it is possible to show in which projects Fina was involved. It was a wide spectrum from chemical examinations to technical improvements up to ecological questions. This material is very diverse.

At the end I will mention the material from the Administration- and Personal Department. Here you can find travel accounts and something about the living conditions of expatriate employees.

The archive of Total Norge AS and Fina Exploration Norway SCA were the first bigger archives of oil companies which came to the state archive in Stavanger. I am sure that it is known that the oil industry consists of a network of cooperations between companies. Now we have documented the oil-adventure - as we call it here in Norway – not only from a public but also from a private point of view.