Total S.A. is French multinational integrated oil and Gas Company and one of the six "Super major" 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. The company has its head office in the Tour Total in La Défense district in Courbevoie, west of Paris. The building was originally constructed between 1983 and 1985 for Elf Aquitaine; Total SA acquired the building after its merger with Elf in 2000.
Christophe de Margerie was chief executive from 14 February 2007 until 20 October 2014, when he died in a plane crash at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow. During the plane's takeoff roll it collided with a snowplow which had failed to follow the remainder of its convoy. His total annual compensation for this role was €2,746,335, consisting of a €1,250,000 salary and €1,496,335 bonus. The present chairman and CEO of the company is Patrick Pouyanné (2014 to present). On December 16, 2015, Patricia Barbizet was named Lead Independent Director. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index.
The company was founded after World War I, when the then French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré rejected the idea of forming a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell in favour of creating an entirely French oil company. At Poincaré's behest, Col. Ernest Mercier with the support of ninety banks and companies founded Total on 28 March 1924, as the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP), literally the "French Petroleum Company".
Petroleum was seen as vital in the case of a new war with Germany. As per the agreement reached during the San Remo conference of 1920, the French state received the 25% share held by Deutsche Bank in the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) as part of the compensation for war damages caused by Germany during World War I. The French government's stake in TPC was transferred to CFP, and the Red Line agreement in 1928 rearranged the shareholding of CPF in TPC (later renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929) to 23.75%. The company from the start was regarded as a private sector company in view of its listing on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929.
The company during the 1930s was engaged in exploration and production, primarily from the Middle East. Its first refinery began operating in Normandy in 1933. After World War II, CFP engaged in oil exploration in Venezuela, Canada, and Africa while pursuing energy sources within France. Exploration in Algeria, then a French colony, began in 1946, with Algeria becoming a leading source of oil in the 1950s. In 1954, CFP introduced its downstream product – Total brand of gasoline in the African continent and Europe.
In 1980, Total Petroleum (North America) Ltd., a company controlled 50% by CFP, bought the American refining and marketing assets of Vickers Petroleum as part of a sell-off by Esmark of its energy holdings. This purchase gave Total refining capacity, transportation, and a network of 350 service stations in 20 states.
The company renamed itself Total CFP in 1985, to build on the popularity of its gasoline brand. Later in 1991, the name was changed to Total, when it became a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The French government, who used to control more than 30 percent of the company's stock in 1991, reduced its stake in the firm to less than 1 percent by 1996, In the time period between 1990 and 1994, foreign ownership of the firm increased from 23 per cent to 44 per cent.
Meanwhile, Total continued to expand its retail presence in North America under several brand names. In 1989, Denver, Colorado, based Total Petroleum, Total CFP's North American unit, purchased 125 Road Runner retail locations from Texarkana, Texas-based Truman Arnold Companies. By 1993, Total Petroleum was operating 2,600 retail stores under the Vickers, Apco, Road Runner, and Total brands. That year, the company began remodeling and rebranding all of its North American gasoline and convenience stores to use the Total name. Only four years later, Total sold its North American refining and retail operations to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock for $400 million in stock and $414 million in assumed debt.
After Total's takeover of Petrofina of Belgium 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 on 6 May 2003. During that rebranding, the current globe logo was unveiled.
As of 31 December 2014 Total S.A. had 903 subsidiaries consolidated into the group results, together with significant affiliate investments and joint ventures, mostly in LPG. In addition Total had other significant equity holdings amounting to about 3bn euros, treated as investments and was involved in a number of significant joint ventures, mostly relating to LPG and LNG exploration, production and shipping. The joint ventures that are treated as subsidiaries are listed in the consolidated subsidiary section.
