Elf Aquitaine facts for kids
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|
| Public | |
| Traded as | |
| ISIN | FR0000120271 |
| Industry | Oil and gas, Solar energy, Renewable energies |
| Founded | 28 March 1924 |
| Founder | Ernest Mercier |
| Headquarters | Tour Total, Courbevoie, France |
|
Area served
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Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Patrick Pouyanné (Chairman & CEO) |
| Products | Oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas and LNG trading and transportation, oil refining, chemicals, solar and biomass |
| Services | Fuel stations |
| Revenue |  US$127.9 billion (2016) |
|
Operating income
|
 US$5.73 billion (2016) |
| US$6.196 billion (2016) |
|
| Total assets | US$230.9 billion (2016) |
| Total equity | US$98.68 billion (2016) |
|
Number of employees
|
102,168 (2016) |
Total S.A. is a big French company that works with oil and natural gas. It's known as one of the seven "Supermajor" oil companies in the world. This means it's one of the largest and most important companies in the oil and gas business globally.
Total handles everything about oil and gas. This includes finding oil and gas underground, bringing it to the surface, moving it around, turning it into useful products like gasoline, and selling those products. The company also makes many different chemicals.
Total is also working on cleaner energy sources. They are involved in low-carbon energies, which means they are looking into ways to produce energy that creates less pollution.
The main office for Total is in a building called the Tour Total. This building is in Courbevoie, a town west of Paris, France. Total is also a part of a big group of companies listed on the stock market called the Euro Stoxx 50.
You might have heard of Elf Aquitaine. This was another French oil company. It joined with a company called TotalFina to create TotalFinaElf. Later, in 2003, the company changed its name simply to Total. Even though the company name changed, "Elf" is still used as a brand name by Total for some of its products.
History
The company known as Elf Aquitaine started from three different French oil companies. These were Régie Autonome des Pétroles (RAP), Société Nationale des Pétroles d'Aquitaine (SNPA), and Bureau de Recherches de Pétroles (BRP). These companies were formed after a large natural gas field was found in Saint-Marcet, in the Aquitaine region of France.
In December 1965, RAP and BRP joined together. They formed a new company called Entreprise de Recherches et d'Activités Pétrolières (ERAP). A few years later, on April 28, 1967, all the different products and brand names of the company were brought together under one new name: Elf. The name Elf stood for "Essence Lubricants France."
In 1976, Elf-ERAP merged with another company called Antar Pétroles de l'Atlantique. This new, bigger company was named Société Nationale Elf Aquitaine (SNEA). Later, it became simply known as Elf Aquitaine. In 1991, Elf Aquitaine's shares could be bought and sold on the NYSE.
In the year 2000, Elf Aquitaine merged with Total Fina. This big merger created the company TotalFinaElf. Then, in 2003, the company decided to shorten its name to just Total.
Motorsport
From its very beginning, Elf used motor racing to help promote its brand. They made a deal with a racing team called Matra. This deal started in the French Formula 3 racing series.
In 1969, the combination of Elf, Matra, and the Tyrrell racing team won the Formula One World Championship with driver Jackie Stewart. At this time, the French government owned Elf. Elf then started a new, long-term partnership with Renault, which was also owned by the French government back then.
Renault's Formula One racing cars proudly displayed the Elf sponsorship logos for many years, until 2009. After that, the Elf logos on the cars were replaced with Total logos, showing the company's new main brand.
See also
In Spanish: Elf Aquitaine para niños
