Thierry Desmarest, Chairman of French oil company Total, speaks during the company\'s annual shareholders meeting in Paris recently. — Reuters Photo PARIS, Oct 22 (Reuters) : French oil major Total on Wednesday appointed refining head Patrick Pouyanne as chief executive and former CEO Thierry Desmarest as non-executive chairman.
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.
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