Alaska leaseholder TotalFina, Elf announce friendly merger

by The Associated Press

French oil companies TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine said Sept. 13 they had agreed to merge to create the world’s fourth largest oil group, ending a fierce, two-month takeover battle.

TotalFina is now offering 19 of its own shares for 13 Elf shares in a deal worth about 52 billion euros ($55 billion).

The two oil groups had been at a standoff since July, when TotalFina launched an unsolicited 42-billion-euro ($44 billion), 4-for-3 all-share takeover bid for Elf.

Elf resisted the hostile offer, coming back with its own 50-billion-euro ($51 billion) cash-and-stock counter bid to acquire Total Fina.

Elf said on Sept. 13, however, that its offer for Total Fina is “no longer necessary” and that both companies would drop legal cases contesting the original bids.

Total Fina Chairman Thierry Desmarest will head the new group, while Elf Aquitaine Chairman Philippe Jaffre will step down, the companies said.

Total Fina, already the world’s fifth-largest oil company, was created in December after Total bought the Belgian refiner Petrofina for $11.8 billion.

Elf Aquitaine has no acreage position in Alaska, but TotalFina has 68,051 acres and is the state’s ninth largest oil and gas lease holder, with eastern North Slope offshore acreage immediately north of the Point Thomson unit and a considerable distance offshore the Badami unit, where it is a 30 percent partner to field operator BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. The company also holds federal Alaska outer continental shelf acreage in those areas totaling 61,910 acres — sixth ranked among Alaska North Slope federal lease holders.