Total S.A.

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Total S.A.
Type Public (Euronext: FP, NYSE: TOT)
Founded 1924
Headquarters La Défense, Paris, France
Key people Christophe de Margerie, CEO
Thierry Desmarest, Chairman
François Cornélis, Vice-Chairman, President of Chemicals
Robert Castaigne, CFO
Industry Oil and Gas
Products Oil
Natural gas
Petrochemical products
Total petrol stations
Elf petrol stations
Revenue ▲$153.802 billion(2006)+12%
Operating income ▲ $25.166 billion (2006)+7%
Net income ▲ $12.585 billion (2006) +5%
Employees 111,401 (2004)
Website http://www.total.com

Total S.A. (Euronext: FP, NYSE: TOT) is an oil company headquartered in Paris, France, and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer.

Rejecting the idea of partnering with Royal Dutch Shell, French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré insisted after World War I that France create an entirely French oil company. At Poincaré's behest, Col. Ernest Mercier, a graduate of the École Polytechnique expert in the electric industry, enlisted the support of ninety banks and companies to found Total on March 28, 1924, as the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP), literally the "French Company of Petroleums". Petroleum was seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany. However, the company was from the start a private sector company (it was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange for the first time in 1929). CFP took up the 23.75% share of Deutsche Bank in the Turkish Petroleum Company (renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company), awarded to France as compensation for war damages caused by Germany during World War I by the San Remo conference.

In 1985 the company was renamed Total CFP. In 1991 the company name became simply Total. After Total's takeover of Petrofina in 1999, it became known as Total Fina. Afterwards it also acquired Elf Aquitaine. First named TotalFinaElf after the merger in 2000, it was later renamed back to Total in 2003.

Total operates in more than 130 countries and has over 111,000 employees. As recently as 1992, the French government still held 5% of the firm's shares, down from a peak of over thirty percent. [1] In the time period between 1990 and 1994, foreign ownership of the firm increased from 23% to 44%.

Total's headquarters in La Défense, Paris, France
Total's headquarters in La Défense, Paris, France

Contents

[edit] Organization

Total Gas Station
Total Gas Station
  • Upstream
    • Oil & petrol production/exploration
    • Oil & power
  • Downstream
    • Refining & marketing
    • Trading & shipping
  • Chemicals
    • Total Petrochemicals
    • Fertilizers
    • Resins, adhesives and electroplating
      • Cray Valley
      • Sartomer
      • Cook Composites & Polymers
      • Atotech
      • Bostik
    • Elastomer Processing

In the UK it has been noted that in 2008 it has adopted a bold and acclaimed recruitment strategy[citation needed] in terms of ensuring its current staff meet Home Office Regulations by conducting a comprehensive audit which has set the standard for other firms. It has also stimulated internal development with its 2008 Academy.

The AZF chemical plant which exploded in 2001 in Toulouse, France, belonged to the Grande Paroisse branch of Total.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Iraq

In the 1990s Total and Elf Aquitane (before the merger) won contracts with Saddam Hussein's regime to develop the $3.4 Billion Majnoon and Nahr Umar oil fields in southern Iraq, the world's third largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Iran consisting of 25% of Iraq's oil. Total's Executives were accused of bribery on Iraq's officials. [2]

[edit] Burma

Although Total claims to maintain a "socially responsible investment" program, there has been recent controversy over its corporate involvement in Burma, despite recent European Union sanctions on new investment in the country due to its poor human rights record. Democratic activists have accused Total of propping up that country's brutal military junta.

These groups, which include Europe's largest Burma lobbying group, Burma Campaign UK[3], and the Burmese Democratic Movement Association, point out that Total is currently involved in a joint venture with the military regime developing an offshore gas field in the Andaman Sea. The gas is exported to Thailand through a pipeline that travels 65 kilometres through Burma. Total is one of the biggest foreign investors in Burma. The Burmese government in exile also criticises Total for allegedly funding rape, murder and genocide in Burma, as a result of hiring members of the military to guard their pipeline.

Total has been taken to court by six Burmese people who claimed they were used as forced labour in the preparation of Total's pipeline in Burma. Total paid the villages to drop the case in 2005. In 2005 a 14 year old girl was allegedly gang raped by sixteen members of the Burmese army employed by Total to guard their pipeline. Many activists feel Total has not taken adequate steps to bring those responsible to account.

'Free Burma' banner hung on a Total sign during a Students Against Total protest
'Free Burma' banner hung on a Total sign during a Students Against Total protest

At a recent meeting of the company's small shareholders in France, activist groups called for Total to cease its operations inside Burma, but the company has refused to budge on the issue, despite urging from activists and independent financial advisors.

The regime benefits from Total's investment and thus, Total's involvement in Burma is branded by democratic activists as a major factor propping up the regime and perpetuating its brutal and illegitimate rule.

The construction of the Yadana pipeline has led to environmental devastation, while revenues from Total's investment in Burma fuel purchases by Burma's dictator, Than Shwe, to increase weapons supplies.

Burma's democracy movement, led by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, has called on companies to leave Burma until the ruling dictator agrees to participate in a transition to democracy. Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, has strongly criticized Total's deal with Burma's military regime, stating: "Total has become the main supporter of the Burmese military regime."

On February 3rd 2006 an International Day of Action Against Total was held. Protests in at least 15 countries worldwide, including the Netherlands, Denmark, France, UK, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Romania, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, Thailand and the USA, and a formal request was made by the independent Burmese trade union FTUB to TOTAL Oil to pull out of Burma. The Burmese government in exile (democratically elected by the majority of people in Burma) supported the day.

Apart from Total, the Korean corporation Daewoo is another company active in Burma's developing oil and gas industry.

[edit] Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Coming Soon

See also: US Campaign for Burma, Burma Campaign UK, Boycott Total Oil (Students Against Total), Official Total Response

[edit] Germany

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After taking over Elf Aquitaine, Total inherited a broad range of controversial and ongoing issues, including about 2550 Minol sites (projection from 400 in Thuringia) all over the former East Germany, the transfer of which had been the subject of tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes. The property transfer had also involved the Leuna refinery. In Germany the Leuna scandal was also called the "Chancellor Scandal" because it apparently implicated the former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. See: Leuna Scandal

[edit] Related

[edit] Environmental Record

In 1999 the Total SA company was fined €375,000 for an oil spill that stretched 400 kilometers from La Rochelle to the western tip of Brittany. The company was only fined that amount because they were only partially liable because Total SA did not own the ship. The plaintiffs had sought more than $1.5 billion in damages. More than 100 groups and local governments joined in the suit. The Total company was fined just over 298 million dollars. The majority of the money will go to the french government, several environmental groups, and various regional governments. The Total SA company was also fined $550,000 for the amount of marine pollution that came from it. After the incident with the oil spill happened they tried to restore there image opened a sea turtle conservation project in Masirah for the past years.

Prior to the verdict in which Total was found guilty one of the counterparts in the incident, Malta Maritime Authority (MMA), was not to be tried for having any hand in the incident. In 2005 Total submitted a report to the Paris courts which stated that Total had gotten a group of experts that stated the tanker had corrosion on it and that Total was responsible for it. The courts sought a second expert reviewing of this information which was turned down. [4]

On January 16, 2008, Total S.A. was required to compensate all of the victims of the pollutions caused by the sinking of the ship Erika. They are required to compensate the victims in the amount of EUR 192 million. This is in addition to the EUR 200 million that Total S.A. spent to help clean up the spill. The company feels that the verdict is unfair because it wasn't their fault the ship sank. They will be appealing the verdict because it forced the users of the ship to also be the inspectors and not the people that made the ship. [5]

On August 13, 2007, Total S.A. announced a lower fuel emission, lower emissions and cost-efficient petroleum product, named Evolution. Evolution is designed to let its user use less fuel and get further than other fuels. The product was developed exclusively for Total because of the demand for more energy efficient products. This fuel can be used with any engine that runs on unleaded. [6]

[edit] Miscellaneous

The headquarters of TotalFinaElf were free-climbed in February 2003 by "Spiderman" Alain Robert, in protest of the American-led invasion of Iraq; he scaled it again on October 19, 2004 while wearing a Spider-Man costume.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chapter 2
  2. ^ "France's Saddam deals Revealed", The Observer, 2004-10-10.
  3. ^ Burmese opposition groups continue to use the name "Burma" since they do not recognize the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country. However, the United Nations has recognized the name. See a fuller discussion under the main article: Burma.
  4. ^ "[http://www.businesstoday.com.mt/2005/02/23/l1.html Paris pursues Erika case against Total, MMA not to be tried ]"
  5. ^ "REG-TOTAL S.A. Erika : Total Compensates Third-Parties"
  6. ^ "Total announces new fuel"

[edit] See also

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Flag of France CAC 40 companies of France