Total CEO, Oil Buccaneer, Dies In Moscow Plane Crash
Christophe de Margerie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Christophe de Margerie, chairman and chief executive of French oil major Total SA, died in a plane crash near Moscow as he returned from one of those top-level meetings that characterized both the man and the company at which he worked all his professional life and led since 2007.
A fine strategist, seeking reward at the edge of technical possibilities and at the limit of legality, De Margerie was a very outspoken businessman and a bugbear for many non-governmental organizations.
A scion of a champagne dynasty, De Margerie served the interests of his company and country before any personal gain.
De Margerie returned from a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at his Dacha near Moscow following a business leaders' meeting in Gorki.
The two men had been discussing investments in Russian amid the western sanctions on the country related to the stand-off in Ukraine.
'Big Moustache' as he was called by staff and journalists, De Margerie and Total conducted their own foreign policy that was not always in line with the governments of the moment, as the group sought to secure long-term energy provision contracts and considered corporate and geo-political issues with a longer horizon than that of the next elections.
Total was active in Iran and Iraq at times that political opinions was against such business deals and De Margerie and others such as former French government officials were acquitted in 2013 of charges they had circumvented a U.N. embargo against Iraq by buying Iraqi oil through front companies, allowing Saddam's government to raise money illicitly.
Total insisted it was operating according to the rules of the U.N oil-for-food program, which allowed Iraq, while under U.N. sanctions, to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods from 1996 to 2003.
De Margerie, 63, was an outspoken man. While an ace in backroom business dealings, he did not shun the limelight and often had a remark on offer to a waiting journalists at one of the many events he attended.
A relatively short, rotund, man with a luxurious white walrus moustache, he did not go unnoticed. He loved to make statements that kicked the sheen of the 'political correctness' of elected officials and others. Always clear-minded in public, he had a passion for whisky and vodka.
Berlin Wall
In a Reuters interview in July, De Margerie said Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and focus instead on making those deliveries safer.
He said tension between the West and Russia were pushing Moscow closer to China, as illustrated by a $400 billion deal to supply Beijing with gas that was clinched in May.
'Are we going to build a new Berlin Wall?' he said in the interview. 'Russia is a partner and we shouldn't waste time protecting ourselves from a neighbour ... What we are looking to do is not to be too dependent on any country, no matter which. Not from Russia, which has saved us on numerous occasions,' he said.
Total is working on the Yamal project, a $27 billion joint venture investment to tap vast natural gas reserves in northwest Siberia that aims to double Russia's stake in the fast-growing market for liquefied natural gas. De Margerie said Europe could not live without Russian gas, adding there was no reason to do so.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France had lost 'a great captain of industry and a patriot.'
Adopted Son
Christophe-Gabriel-Jean-Marie Jacquin de Margerie was born on August 6, in Mareuil sur Lay-Dissais in the Vendée region. His father was an army captain, Pierre Rodocanachi and his mother Colette Taitinger, daughter of champagne baron Pierre Taitinger. His father left.
When he was 11, his mother remaried with Pierre-Alain Jacquin de Margerie, who adopted her sons and gave them his name.
De Margerie attended a school in Reims before joining the Ecole Superieure de Commerce business school in Paris. He became chief executive officer of Total in February 2007, adding the role of chairman in May 2010, after previously running its exploration and production division. He succeeded to Thierry Desmarest who oversaw the latest stages of De Margerie's progression on the group he joined in 1974.
De Margerie said in July that he should be judged based on new projects launched under his watch, such as a string of African fields. He also said then that Total would seek a successor from within the company rather than an outsider.
Philippe Boisseau, head of Total's new energy division, and Patrick Pouyanne, in charge of reducing the group's exposure to unprofitable European refining sectors, have long been seen as potential successors.
Total is the second-biggest capitalisation on the Paris Bourse and with a value of 102 billion euro and the fourth largest by market value of the western world's top oil companies behind Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron .
A company of that size does have a succession plan in a drawer. But it had not planned to see De Margerie go soon and had extended his age limit to 70. A special committee of the board was meeting on Tuesday.
De Margerie leaves a wife, Bernadette Prudhomme, four daughters, a son and several grandchildren.
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