Thierry Desmarest News

French oil company Total has appointed refining boss Patrick Pouyanne as chief executive to succeed Christophe de Margerie who was killed in a plane crash in Moscow this week. Pouyanne, 51, head of refining, had been considered as possible candidate to succeed de Margerie in the past and has a reputation as a shrewd cost-cutter. The world's fourth largest oil company also named Thierry Desmarest, a former Total CEO, as non-executive chairman. The appointments came less than 48 hours after de Margerie's death.

Thousands of protesters from western France marched through Paris on April 1 to demand tighter shipping laws in the wake of the Erika oil tanker spill which devastated parts of their region. The march was called by action groups from western France along with local politicians and environmentalists. Police estimated 2,000 people attended. TotalFina, which chartered the Erika, was targeted by protesters in two separate incidents before the march. On the day of the protest, activists dumped sand and oil in front of what they believed was the home of TotalFina boss, Thierry Desmarest. According to police, they left the scene upon realizing that they had the wrong address.

Thousands of protesters from western France marched through Paris on April 1 to demand tighter shipping laws in the wake of the Erika oil tanker spill, which devastated parts of their region. The march was called by action groups from western France, along with local politicians and environmentalists. Police estimated 2,000 people attended. Oil giant TotalFina, which chartered the Erika, was targeted by protesters in two separate incidents before the march. Earlier on Saturday, activists dumped sand and oil in front of what they believed was the home of TotalFina boss, Thierry Desmarest. According to police, they left the scene upon realizing that they had the wrong address.

Elf Aquitaine Chairman Philippe Jaffre said he will only enter merger talks with TotalFina if TotalFina agreed to spin off the merged group's chemicals activities into a separate company. Jaffre told France's LC1 television it would be left to Elf and TotalFina shareholders to decide in two months' time between TotalFina's hostile bid for Elf and Elf's counter-bid if the two companies failed to agree on a friendly deal. He said he was "very confident" shareholders would opt for Elf's proposal. TotalFina launched a hostile bid for Elf on July 5 to create the world's fourth largest oil company. Elf responded two weeks later with a counter-bid and said it would spin off the new group's petrochemicals and chemicals businesses into a separately quoted company.

French oil company TotalFina has reportedly agreed a friendly merger deal with Elf Aquitaine, bringing to an end their takeover fight and creating the world's fourth largest oil company. TotalFina Chairman Thierry Desmarest will head the new group. The board will comprise nine Elf directors, nine TotalFina directors and four directors representing the Belgian shareholders within the TotalFina board.

TotalFina Chairman Thierry Desmarest said that relations with rival Elf Aquitaine had entered a more relaxed phase and said he would seek a friendly end to their takeover fight in the coming weeks. "The atmosphere has become more relaxed over the past week," Desmarest said. Desmarest confirmed he was ready to raise his offer if a friendly deal could be reached. "In order to secure a deal, if we want to move more quickly, we need to accept that there is room for discussion," he said. TotalFina launched a 42 billion euro hostile bid for Elf on July 5 and Elf responded with a 50 billion counter-bid two weeks later. Desmarest said that negotiations between the two oil giants had not yet begun.

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, touring beaches devastated by oil seeping from a sunken tanker off the Atlantic coast, pledged to press for stricter global safety rules. Jospin, who cut short a trip to Egypt to return to France as it was hit by violent storms that killed some 60 people and drove two separate oil slicks to its coastline, vowed to use the French presidency of the European Union next year to push for new laws. "We are going to draw the lessons for international regulations," he said. "We are going to make precise proposals. French media reported that the oil slicks, which seeped from the tanker Erika after it sank on Dec. 12, were now threatening 250 miles of France's rugged Atlantic coast, which is heavily dependent on fishing and tourism.

A new wave of heavy fuel oil from the sunken tanker Erika washed onto France's storm-battered western coast last week, this time hitting the shores of Ile de Re, a jagged point below the northwestern peninsula of Brittany, whose wealth of sandy beaches and rocky inlets are a haven for seabirds - and tourists in summertime. The weekend's millennium festivities provided a distraction, but little respite for islanders and mainland residents as well as the fishermen, birds and mammals hit by the progressive oil invasion. More than 13,000 birds have so far been contaminated by the slick which hit the coast on Christmas Eve, almost two weeks after the Maltese-registered Erika broke up in storms with 25,000 tons of oil aboard on Dec. 12.

The oil spill off France from a chartered tanker has so far cost TotalFina more than $123 million, according to Chairman Thierry Desmarest. Desmarest announced Jan. 21 that the company will pay $31 million to store and treat polluted sand on top of almost $78 million already earmarked for the spill. "Today we make a new commitment - to take charge of the storage and treatment of waste, composed of sand, seaweed, various material, and fuel, which already weighs 100,000 tons," he said. Greenpeace slammed TotalFina last month for failing to provide storage for the sticky oil which volunteers and soldiers have been shoveling from France's west coast since the slick lapped ashore in late December.

Oil giant TotalFina, which chartered the ill-fated oil tanker Erika, tightened its policy on chartering older tankers. However, company officials stressed that a new age limit on large ships, which would not have stopped it chartering the mid-sized Erika, needed to be backed up by tougher international maritime standards and greater transparency of safety checks. "We still need a global initiative and we are still calling for tighter controls and for charterers to have more access to documents (on seaworthiness checks)," TotalFina spokeswoman Isabelle Galldraud said. The company is cutting to 20 years from 25 the upper age limit on chartered vessels of 80,000 deadweight tons and above, while keeping it at 25 years for smaller ships.