Christophe de Margerie (1951-2014) was President and Chairman of the Board of Total (France). He worked for the company for 40 years.
In 1990-1999, he held senior positions in the Total business unit in the Middle East. After the merger of Total, Petrofina and Elf Aquitaine in 1999, he was Executive Vice President and President of the Total business unit responsible for oil and gas production and exploration. In 2007, he was appointed President and the Chairman of the Total Board, and in 2010 he also headed the company's Board of Directors. He died tragically in the early hours of 21 October 2014. He was awarded the Order of Honor (posthumously) by Decree No. 704 of the President of Russia, dated 1 November 2014, for a great contribution to the development of Russo-French economic and cultural ties.
Christophe de Margerie is the world's first ice-breaking gas carrier; she is designed to service the Yamal LNG project and to transport natural gas in the complex ice conditions of the Kara Sea and the Gulf of Ob, throughout the year. The vessel's characteristics are unparalleled in the world. She has an Arc7 ice class, the highest amongst existing ships. She is capable of breaking ice of up to 2.1 metres thick. The power output of her propulsion system is 45 MW, which is one and a half times that of the world's first nuclear Icebreaker Lenin (32.4 MW). The vessel can transport 172,600 cubic meters of LNG every voyage, a volume sufficient to provide a country like Sweden with gas for four weeks. The length of the vessel is 299 metres (the height of the Eiffel Tower is 300 metres). The height of the vessel from the keel to the top of the mast is 60 metres (comparable to the height of a 22-storey building).
