The French company Total is the world’s fifth-largest oil company, exempt from paying taxes in France and reluctant to settle its bill with Africa. Present in many countries but primarily on the old continent, the company is not merely an armada of oil drills. Indeed, it is one of the darkest leaders of Françafrique.
The company
Total is France’s leading company in terms of revenue. When it was created, the company was public and state-backed. It was tasked with managing the French share of oil interests in Iraq. In 1993, Edouard Balladur privatized it. Total bought the Belgian oil company Petrofina in 1999 and became Total Fina; shortly afterward, the company acquired Elf, which officially adopted the group’s name on May 6, 2003.
The company posted €8.4 billion in profits in 2013, which was considered a weak performance for them as it represented a 20% decline. Indeed, the amount generally fluctuates between €15 and €20 billion.
The Total ogre
If you are in France, you have already passed by or filled up at the brand’s gas stations. Numbering 4,300 across the country, these same pumps directly pour Africa’s blood (and its oil) into our tanks at cost price. This oil monster enjoys numerous advantages: for example, the group pays no taxes in France, despite profits amounting to several billion euros. Total’s CEO accompanies the President of the Republic on most of his trips; wherever there is a possibility of exploiting oil, Total must be present. The latter is the unofficial number one figure of the French state, in the world and in Africa, and the role he occupies is far more important than that of the President of the Republic. That says everything about the power held by the CEO of this immense group.
Moreover, the stakes are so high that the company, more effective than an embassy, has free rein to make oil extraction conditions favorable. Any market, whatever it may be, is opened willingly… or by force. Thus, Total is unofficially involved in African conflicts. Political, economic, and, if necessary, military pressure are the tools that ensure the group’s longevity and the growth of its profits. Financial interests, and therefore oil interests, and politics are intimately intertwined. The leader of an African state is almost compelled to surrender oil at virtually no cost, under threat of “disturbances.”
As Christophe de Margerie himself said, “Total economically needs Africa.” Obviously. Being the leading French investor in Africa, it is, like other multinationals established there, an investor whose money does not directly benefit the populations concerned.
However, it is true that Total positions itself as a solution to youth unemployment. It employs locals and graduates from the diaspora, which contributes to its ambiguity. Indeed, although it is known to be involved in the shadowy interests that fuel Africa’s fratricidal wars, it is also an actor on the continent and therefore part of the solution.
Like an unfortunate irony, the group’s CEO died on the night from Monday to Tuesday (October 21, 2014) in a plane crash, in which the fuel caused a serious fire.
So, what should we think of Total’s position in Africa? A structure that both vampirizes and feeds, that crushes yet also fills certain gaps. Does the ambiguity of this machine once again point to the incompetence of African leaders in matters of social policy?
