The chief executive of the French oil company Total, Christophe
de Margerie, was killed when a private jet collided with a snow plough at
Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport on Monday night.
“Tonight a plane crashed when it collided with a
snow-clearing machine,” said airport spokeswoman Elena Krylova. “Three crew
members and a passenger died. I can confirm that the passenger was Total’s head
De Margerie.”
The oil company said in a statement: “Total confirms with
deep regret and great sadness that chairman and CEO Christophe de Margerie died
just after 10pm (Paris time) on October 20 in a private plane crash at Vnukovo
airport in Moscow, following a collision with a snow removal machine.”
The collision occurred just before midnight as the Dassault
Falcon business jet attempted to take off bound for Paris.
De Margerie, 63, was on a list of attendees at a Russian
government meeting on foreign investment in Gorki, near Moscow, on Monday.
Hours before his death he had met the Russian prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev,
at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in
Russia, the Vedomosti business daily reported.
The Vnukovo airport said in a statement that the Falcon
Dassault business aviation jet crashed as it prepared to take off for Paris
with one passenger and three crew on board. “During run-up at 11.57pm there was
a collision with the airport’s snow plough. As a result of the crash the
passenger and all the crew members died.”
The airport said that visibility was at 350 metres at the
time of the accident. Moscow saw its first snowfall of the winter on Monday. A
fire broke out after the crash and was extinguished by airport firefighters.
Moscow transport investigators said they had opened a
criminal probe into breaches of aviation safety rules causing multiple deaths
through negligence. French authorities would be invited to take part. The
plane’s black boxes had been removed for examination.
The airport was closed temporarily to clear up the scene of
the accident but resumed normal operations at 1.30am.
With his distinctive bushy moustache and outspoken manner he
was one of the most recognisable figures among the world’s top oil executives.
De Margerie, a graduate of the Ecole Superieure de Commerce
in Paris, became chief executive officer of Total in February 2007, taking on
the additional role of chairman in May 2010, after previously running its exploration
and production division.
De Margerie said in July that he should be judged based on
new projects launched under his watch, such as a string of African fields, and
that Total would seek a successor from within the company rather than an
outsider. Philippe Boisseau, head of Total’s new energy division, and Patrick
Pouyanne, who was tasked with reducing the group’s exposure to unprofitable
European refining sectors, have long been seen as potential heirs.
A staunch defender of Russia and its energy policies amid
the conflict in Ukraine, De Margerie told Reuters in a July interview that
Europe should stop thinking about cutting its dependence on Russian gas and
focus instead on making those deliveries safer.
He said tensions between the west and Russia were pushing
Moscow closer to China, as illustrated by a $400bn deal to supply Beijing with
gas that was clinched in May.
“Are we going to build a new Berlin Wall?” he said. “Russia
is a partner and we shouldn’t waste time protecting ourselves from a neighbour
… What we are looking to do is not to be too dependent on any country, no
matter which. Not from Russia, which has saved us on numerous occasions.”
Total is one of the major oil companies most exposed to
Russia, where its output will double to represent more than a tenth of its
global portfolio by 2020.
Total is one of the top foreign investors in Russia but its
future there grew cloudy after the 17 July downing of a Malaysian passenger
airliner over Ukrainian territory held by pro-Russian rebels. The disaster
worsened the oil-rich country’s relations with the west and raised the threat
of deeper sanctions.
Total said in September that sanctions would not stop it
working on the Yamal project, a $27bn joint venture investment to tap vast
natural gas reserves in north-west Siberia that aims to double Russia’s stake
in the fast-growing market for liquefied natural gas.
De Margerie said then that Europe could not live without Russian
gas, adding that there was no reason to do so.
Total is the fourth largest by market value of the western
world’s top oil companies behind Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron. Russia
accounted for about 9% of Total’s oil and gas output in 2013.
The oil company had forecast in April that Russia would
become its biggest source of oil and gas by 2020 due to its partnership with
the Russian energy company Novatek and the Yamal project.
Total SA is France’s second-biggest listed company with a
market value of €102bn.
Like other big oil companies Total has been under pressure
from shareholders to cut costs and raise dividends as rising costs in the
industry and weaker oil prices squeeze profitability.
De Margerie was the son of diplomats and business leaders,
and the grandson of Pierre Taittinger, founder of Taittinger champagne and the
luxury goods dynasty.
“His death is a big loss for the global oil/gas industry,”
said Gordon Kwan, head of Asia-Pacific oil and gas research at the financial
company Nomura.
Source-The Guardian UK
No comments:
Post a Comment