Patrick Pouyanné
,Chairman and CEO,Total
French oil supermajor Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanné was once dubbed the king of cost cuts. But as his tenure has progressed, he has started to drive the firm forwards into greater expansion. Some major deals over the past 12 months have propelled Pouyanné into our elite top three oil and gas figures.
Pouyanné’s bold decision-making could not be better illustrated than by Total’s agreement last summer to sign a multi-billion dollar deal alongside China’s CNPC to develop phase 11 of Iran’s section of the vast South Pars gas field. Despite sabre rattling by US President Donald Trump, threatening to once again cast Iran into an economic abyss, Pouyanné remains determined to stare down opposition to the tie-up.
Total reinforced its regional presence by spending nearly $500mn on Marathon Oil Libya, which owns a 16.3% stake in the country’s Waha Concessions, while Pouyanné was recently in Abu Dhabi spending $1.45bn on stakes in ADNOC’s offshore oil concessions.
It is not only the Middle East where Total is expanding its reach. Just six weeks after securing the Iranian deal, Pouyanné again put pen to paper as Total purchased Denmark’s Maersk Oil for $7.45bn.
