PETROLEUM EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR 2000

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (TotalFinaElf)

Thierry Desmarest was singled out be his peers from the global oil and gas industry, who chose him for the outstanding leadership and initiative he displayed during Total's mergers first with PetroFina and then Elf Aquitaine.

Mr. Desmarest has headed Total since June 1995. He began his career in the international energy industry in 1971, as an engineer in the Direction of Mines in New Caledonia. Mr. Demarest joined Total in 1981 as Director of Total Algeria, becoming Senior Vice President, Exploration and Production in 1989. The same year, he was elected a member of Total's executive committee and in February 1995 he was named senior executive vice president for the upstream only months before being name Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Desmarest graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines.

Thierry Desmarest

Total