By Prensa Latina
Paris : The fourth most important oil company in the world’s western countries, Total SA (TOTF.PA France), said Wednesday it will continue doing business with Venezuela and Iran and highlighted its good relations with Caracas.
Total’s CEO Christophe de Margerie told press that despite geopolitical and political difficulties existing in the countries where they work, the enterprise finds reasonable solutions and leads its competitors in increased production, with net income last year of 12.2 billion euros making it France’s number one oil company.
Without going deeply into the problems, especially in the case of the US government’s open hostility against Venezuela, and western countries against Iran, De Margerie said there are working channels of understanding.
“I don’t want to make any comments on other countries situations.
What I am mostly concerned about is what Total does in Venezuela, a country with great oil reserves, which needs help and new technology from international enterprises,” he stated.
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA agreed to pay Total 834 million dollars in oil as compensation for participating in Venezuelan Sincor crude oil project.
In the case of Iran, Total faces great pressure due to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s negative attitude besides that of the US government.