Total Buys Refiner Petrofina

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Tuesday December 1 7:02 PM ET 

Total Buys Refiner Petrofina

By RAF CASERT Associated Press Writer 

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Bent on surviving a new round of mergers
shaking up the global oil industry, French petroleum giant Total is
buying Belgian refiner Petrofina for $11.8 billion in a deal that would
create the world's fifth-largest oil company.

The announcement Tuesday came just hours ahead of news that the top U.S.
oil company, Exxon Corp. (NYSE:XON - news), was buying the No. 2 company
Mobil Corp.  (NYSE:MOB - news) for $73.7 billion in the richest
corporate takeover in history.

The deal between Total and Petrofina, Belgium's biggest industrial
company, would create a new company, Total Fina, that would be the
third-largest oil company in Europe.

   [snip]

-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
202.387.8030; f 202.234.5176
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org