Total S.A (Total) announced that Marc Blaizot, who succeeded Jean-Marie Masset as senior vice president, geosciences at Total Exploration & Production in December 2008, was appointed to the corporate management committee on January 2, 2009. He was appointed as senior vice president, exploration in Angola in 1992, he headed the team of geologists and geophysicists who discovered the giant Girassol field in the country’s deep offshore.
Blaizot is a graduate of Ecole Nationale de Geologie in Nancy, France. He began his career as a geologist with Elf in 1979, holding a variety of positions focusing on basin evaluation, prospect generation and appraisal of discoveries in Europe (Italy, Norway, and the UK).
From 1996 to 2001, he conducted geoscience analyses for the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Qatar) and Asia at the Scientific and Technical Center (CSTJF) in Pau, France. While responsible for the management and arbitrage of the Exploration Portfolio from 2001 to 2005, and as head of the New Business Department from 2005 to 2008, he specialized in the management of the exploration portfolio and in the selection of new opportunities worldwide.
He heads a network of more than 2,000 geoscientists in 40 countries. He is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) and the French Association of Geologists (UFG).