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 The nominations at the head of the world's fourth-largest integrated
oil company came less than 48 hours after the brutal death of
Chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie in a plane crash in Moscow.
Desmarest, previously honorary chairman of the oil group, will keep
his new position until the end of 2015, after which the roles of CEO
and chairman would again be combined, Total said in a statement
following an emergency board meeting.
Pouyanne, 51, had a key role in merging Total's loss-making
"downstream" refining and petrochemical units in recent years, and
also had senior roles at the group's "upstream" exploration units in
Angola and Qatar.
"Being in the downstream gives you more of a feel for costs, which
is the big focus of the industry at the moment, whereas in the
upstream you get a bit carried away sometimes, it's kind of sexy,"
said Iain Reid, a BMO analyst in London.
"In the downstream it's more about manufacturing and hard work -
that's what these big oil companies need at the moment."
Pouyanne will likely face a politically sensitive situation in
France, where he told unions earlier this year that Total would seek
to cut capacity among its five refineries, with more details about
the plan expected next spring.
The company will be hoping to avoid a repeat of its problems in 2010
when Total's decision to close down the Dunkirk refinery prompted
weeks of strikes by angry unions and disrupted French oil supplies.
A graduate of France's elite Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines
engineering colleges, Pouyanne was also a ministerial advisor under
previous conservative governments.
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Desmarest, 68, headed the group during the mergers of Total with
Petrofina and then Elf in 1999.
"A Desmarest/Pouyanne tandem would combine experience and
expertise," said Christian Jimenez, a fund manager at Diamant Bleu-Gestion,
which owns Total shares. "It's a quasi-ideal configuration, at least
for the next few years until we have seen whether Pouyanne displays
any talent as a strategist."
(Additional reporting by Raoul Sachs and Alexandre
Boksenbaum-Granier; Editing by Brian Love and James Regan)
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