Total history

The official convention between the government and CFP which enshrined this new shareholding relationship was signed on March 19, 1929.

The Compagnie Fran&ccedilse de Raffinage (CFR) was founded in April 1929. It had to wait until the next year for the first shipment of CFP's own oil from Iraq; the necessary pipeline from the wells to the Lebanese port of Tripoli was not in operation until July 1934.

The introduction of catalytic cracking in 1937 and increased supplies of natural gas brought further expansion of the industry.

The discovery of gas at Saint-Marcet in the summer of 1939 was made by a small exploration syndicate set up with public funding earlier in the decade to prospect for oil and gas in the region.

Total S.A. is a multinational oil and gas company established in 1942 as Compagnie française des pétroles in France.

After the Nazis occupied all of France, he joined the French Resistance in 1943 and became a leader.

Mény's successor, Marcel Champin, died in 1945, leaving the task of determining CFP's postwar strategy to his deputy, Victor de Metz, who was to serve as chairman for 25 years.

The model for a new relationship with the Middle Eastern governments was the 50-50 profit-sharing agreement signed by the Saudi government and the United States oil producers' consortium Aramco in 1950.

The Lacq gas field, discovered by SNPA in southwest France in December 1951, was huge by French standards and impressive enough by any standards with reserves estimated at 250 billion cubic meters.

Another major boost to CFP's supplies resulted from the opening of a new 30-inch pipeline from Kirkouk in Iraq to the Syrian port of Banias in November 1952.

The company delved into chemistry in 1954, the beginning of the plastics age.

The plan was first tested in Africa and then brought to France in 1957.

By 1959 it was looking at ways of refining and selling it.

April 1960 saw the creation of l'Union Générale des Pétroles (UGP) to refine and distribute oil from the Hassi Messaoud field in Algeria.

By 1962, the future Total and Elf groups realized that they needed to find resources other than those in Algeria, and to examine the political risks associated with their reserves.

Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community.

Petrofina began a large-scale exploration of the North Sea, finding gas in 1966 in the British Sector.

Similarly, Total signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco in 2006 to create a refinery in Saudi Arabia with a target of producing 400,000 barrels per day. It started expanding its business further with an operation in Kashagan which became the biggest discovery of oil reserves since 1968.

A deal with the Algerians was finally struck in June 1971.

The success of this arrangement in Iraq provided a framework for the amicable resolution of Franco-Iraqi differences when the Iraqi government nationalized the assets of the Compagnie Française des Pétroles, among others, in 1972.

The group's refining capacity was still concentrated in France, although in 1975 sales abroad outstripped sales in France for the first time.

De Gaulle chose Pierre Guillaumat as the first chairman of BRP. Then 36 years old, Guillaumat was to prove the single most influential figure in the history of Elf Aquitaine, later retiring as chairman of Elf in 1977.

Replacing him was 15-year company veteran Thierry Desmarest, who almost immediately closed a US$610 million deal to develop two offshore oil fields in Iran; TOTAL thus became the first foreign oil company allowed back in Iran since the overthrow of the Shah in 1979.

Albin Chalandon, who became chairman, raised Elf Aquitaine's profile in the United States through the acquisition in 1981 of Texas Gulf.

Building on the popularity of its gasoline brand, the company renamed itself Total CFP in 1985.

In 1989, Atochem expanded into performance chemicals.

As the brand Total gained popularity, the company renamed itself as Total CFP. The name was changed in 1991 to Total.

In 1993 production began at a gas field in Thailand at Bongkot.

In 1994, the French government sold all but 13 percent of its controlling interest in Elf, generating nearly $6 billion in the process.

1995: Thierry Desmarest is made CEO of Total.

Total was acquired by Petrofina in 1999 and renamed as Total Fina.

219). Foucault argues that total history overlooks details and differences at particular places and times. (Philo 2000, p.210). Foucault’s critique to total history can thus be said to emerge from a post-modern belief that nothing is fundamental (Philo 2000, p.211).

However, Total's profits fell 36 percent in the first quarter of 2002 because of lower commodity prices and a plunge in European refining margins.

In 2003, Total acquired a 30% stake in a Saudi Arabian gas exploration Venture.

Similarly, Total signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Aramco in 2006 to create a refinery in Saudi Arabia with a target of producing 400,000 barrels per day.

In 2008, Total was ordered to pay an amount of 192 million Euros as compensation to the victims of pollution caused by the shrinking of its ship.