Total sets its sights on nuclear energy

Total, the French energy group, has begun to eye nuclear energy as access to oil and gas becomes more restricted in countries reluctant to allow foreign investment in their most precious resource.

Christophe de Margerie, who will take over as Total’s chief executive this month, will continue to focus on the hunt for hydrocarbons – gas and oil – something he his well known for in the industry.

But in an interview he revealed his nuclear ambitions. “Being in the energy business, [which] we consider not only as our business but also as a responsibility vis a vis the consumers, we will certainly one day have to be part of this [nuclear] adventure,” he said.
Although it was not an immediate concern, he said, as access to hydrocarbons became more difficult, Total was branching out into other forms of energy. Renewables would only ever satisfy a small portion of the world’s overall energy needs, even though they would be important sources in certain countries that lacked oil and gas. So for Total, “if it is not hydrocarbons, if it is not renewables, if it is not nuclear, what is it”?

Financial Times/MSNBC