Bloomberg News
Christophe de Margerie, the Total SA (FP) chief executive officer who oversaw the biggest increase in reserves at the French oil explorer in at least 15 years, died in a Moscow plane crash, Interfax reported.
The 63-year-old CEO died at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport when a business jet crashed, Interfax said, citing an unidentified law enforcement official. Four people aboard a Dassault Aviation SA Falcon jet died when it crashed into a snowplow late yesterday, Elena Krylova, a spokeswoman for the airport, said by phone, adding it's against policy to name the victims.
Russian officials started an investigation into the crash of the plane, which was headed to Paris, the Moscow regional transport prosecutor's office said in a statement. Calls to Total spokesman Charles-Etienne Lebatard and to the French Foreign Ministry weren't immediately returned.
During a 40-year career that began in Total's finance unit, de Margerie oversaw far-flung operations for the French petroleum giant from Indonesia to the Middle East to Kazakhstan. Earlier this year he helped negotiate the Paris-based company's entry into Russian shale under a Siberian drilling venture with OAO Lukoil; the company also is a partner in the vast Russian gas development on the Yamal Peninsula.
Big Mustache
Nicknamed the 'Big Mustache' for his ample white whiskers, de Margerie cut a larger-than-life figure at international energy conferences including IHS Inc.'s CERAWeek event in Houston earlier this year when he discussed the impact of surging exploration and drilling costs on oil producers and consumers.
As CEO, de Margerie could be seen lingering with a glass of whisky in hand talking with analysts and industry representatives long after the end of conferences he addressed.
Total is the world's fourth-largest non-state energy company by market value, after Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The French company's $228 billion in annual sales exceeds the economic output of nations such as Ireland and Vietnam.
Under de Margerie's reign, reserves-life, or the number of years of current production that could be replicated using existing reserves, rose in every year but one, the longest such streak for Total since at least 1998.
Total was reevaluating plans to explore for shale oil in Western Siberia with partner OAO Lukoil amid economic sanctions against Russia, the company said last month.
To contact the reporters on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net; Joe Carroll in Chicago at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Hobbs at ahobbs4@bloomberg.net; Jason Rogers at jrogers73@bloomberg.net; Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net Susan Warren
Posted by Unknown on Monday, October 20, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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