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The story
Founding and mergers (1965–1979)
Elf Aquitaine's heritage is rooted among three French oil companies: Régie Autonome des Pétroles (RAP), Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine (SNPA), and Bureau de Recherches de Pétroles (BRP). These entities were formed to exploit a gas field discovered in Saint-Marcet in the Aquitaine region of south-western France in 1939.
In the early 1960s, with a view to create a French national champion with oil and gas considered as a strategic resource for economic development, under President de Gaulle's leadership, further state-owned companies were set up with specific objectives.
Union Générale de Distribution de produits pétroliers (UGD) was established in April 1960 with the aim to regroup and manage smaller, but competing private oil and gas companies such as Avia, Caltex, Solydit, ButaFrance, ButaLacq, Lacq, La Mure and CFPP.
To counter the influence in refining activities owned by foreign conglomorerates Shell, BP, Esso and Mobil, Union Générale des Pétroles (UGP) was born a month later, with the mission to create and operate a network of refining facilities and distribution as well as continuing in oil and gas exploration via Groupement des exploitants pétroliers (GEP).
In December 1965, RAP, SNPA and BRP were merged to form Entreprise de Recherches et d'Activités Pétrolières (ERAP), later Elf-ERAP (Essences et Lubrifiants de France). UGP eventually merged with UGD and integrated into the newly formed group. The resulting company achieved vertical integration, owning assets in all phases of the oil and gas business from exploration to production, refinery, distribution and research.
On April 28, 1967, the company's disparate brands and products were unified under the Elf brand. Elf was the first company to pioneer a completely synthetic racing oil.
In 1973, Elf diversified with subsidiary SNPA creating a pharmaceuticals subsidiary Sanofi, and acquired the pharmaceutical groups Labaz, Castaigne, and Robilliart as well as the purchase of minor interests in a cosmetics company.
In 1976, Elf-ERAP merged with Antar Pétroles de l'Atlantique to become Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine (SNEA), later Elf Aquitaine.
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Hoax and merger (1979–1993)
In 1979, Elf Aquitaine lost over US$150 million in the Great Oil Sniffer Hoax to develop a new "gravity wave-based oil detection system", which was later revealed to be a scam.
In 1981, Elf Aquitaine bought Texasgulf for US $3 billion, despite a request by the US government to postpone the merger for time to study the implications. At the time, Texasgulf was the largest producer of sulphur in the world, with Elf Aquitaine gaining majority control. Texasgulf was over one-third owned by the government of Canada.
In 1991, Elf Aquitaine was listed on the NYSE.
In 1993, Elf was awarded an exclusive contract to the Iraqi oil fields by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Fraud scandals (1993-1996)
The Elf scandal which came to light in 1994 in France was according to The Guardian;'the biggest fraud inquiry in Europe since the Second World War... Elf became a private bank for executives who spent £200 million on political favours, mistresses, jewellery, fine art, villas and apartments'.
Iraqi-born Nadhmi Auchi, at that time rumoured to be among the ten richest men in Britain, received a 15-month suspended sentence and a £1.5m fine for his involvement taking illegal commissions. Auchi was also linked to the Clearstream scandal. He is BNP Paribas bank's main private share-holder; and until 2001, the money for the Oil-for-Food programme transited through the escrow account of BNP Paribas.
Moreover, magistrate Eva Joly investigated the case.
In the Leuna/Minol deal following German reunification, Elf Aquitaine took over circa 2,500 vacated gas station allottments in the former East Germany without paying the rightful owners.
Merger and Total S.A. (1996–2022)
In 1996, the French government sold its stake, retaining a golden share.
In 2000, Elf Aquitaine merged with Total Fina to form TotalFinaElf, which changed its name to Total in 2003.
Legal investigations into the company continued after it was purchased by Totalfina.
From Wikipedia’s article on Elf Aquitaine, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4