PARIS (Reuters) - French oil major Total said on Wednesday Patrick Pouyanne, head of refining up until now, would take over as chief executive and Thierry Desmarest as chairman.
The nominations come a day after the brutal death of Christophe de Margerie in a plane crash in Russia.
The appointments were announced in a statement issued after a Total board meeting. The statement said Desmarest would keep his new position until the end of 2015, whereafter the roles of CEO and chairman would be combined again.
Pouyanne had a key role in merging Total's loss-making refining and petrochemical units in recent years, and also had senior roles at the group's exploration units in Angola and Qatar.
A graduate of France's elite Polytechnique and Mines engineering colleges, he was also an advisor in ministerial offices under previous conservative governments.
(Reporting by Raoul Sachs and Michel Rose; Editing by Brian Love)
