KENYA – TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya Plc, a leading petroleum and gas products supplier in the East African region, has appointed Eric Fanchini as a director and the company’s new Managing Director.
Fanchini is an insider at the oil marketing company which he has served for 18 years in various managerial positions including a stint as the IT Manager for the company’s aviation business in Paris.
He replaces the exiting Olagoke Aluko who heads up the company’s ladder to become the Vice President of Finance & Corporate Affairs for Marketing and Services in Africa.
Total is currently at the end of a business transformation cycle which saw it change its name from Total Kenya Plc earlier this year.
The French-based oil marketer is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
Recently the French company Total announced a corporate rebrand to TotalEnergies with a new business model that expands its energy market participation beyond oil and gas to include renewable energy — wind, solar, green hydrogen, among others.
The name change is perhaps the most visible and proactive indication by any oil company so far that use of oil and gas will decrease as the world embraces the use of low carbon renewable energy.
It is an expression of commitment and obligations by TotalEnergies to work towards meeting its carbon emissions reduction milestones to address climate change.
This will invariably see the multinational increase its capital spending in solar and wind energy generation, energy storage technologies while supporting green electrification of transportation which includes electric vehicles charging infrastructure.
“He replaces the exiting Olagoke Aluko who heads up the company’s ladder to become the Vice President Finance & Corporate Affairs for Marketing and Services in Africa”
The company will be expected to gradually scale down investments in new oil production ventures in line with its long-term energy mix plans to meet its carbon footprint targets.
It is interesting to note that the European multinationals are more prepared and committed to energy transition than their US counterparts mainly due to consistent climate change policies and strategies by European governments.
TotalEnergies is the only remaining multinational corporate in Kenya and in the region (Shell exists as a licensed brand franchise to Vivo) participating in downstream, midstream, and upstream segments of the oil and gas industry.
The company is a significant participant in Uganda oil development projects including the pipeline through Tanzania, and Mozambique natural gas development and is also a minority shareholder in the Turkana oil development project in Kenya.
This puts TotalEnergies in a strong position to work jointly with regional governments to advance a carbon strategy that balances carbon footprint gains in green energy — wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, natural gas — with upstream oil development carbon footprints, so as to justify much-needed investments to commercialize oil deposits in the region.
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