Dominique de Talancé, senior examining magistrate of the Paris District Court (Tribunal de Grand Instance), has informed TotalFinaElf that she is considering bringing formal charges against the Company in regard to the sinking of the oil tanker Erika. Ms. de Talancé has been investigating the Erika disaster since January 2000. TotalFinaElf’s Vice President, Legal Affairs will appear before her for a hearing on November 7.

The charges under consideration are:

• Complicity in endangering others. "(...) for being an accomplice in the obviously deliberate violation of the rules of safety and prudence required by laws and regulations (...) thereby exposing others to a particularly serious risk of which it was necessarily aware."
• Pollution by a ship. "(...) for failing to take the necessary measures on December 11 and 12, 1999 to avoid the accident at sea that led to the pollution. In its capacity as charterer, the company had de facto power of supervision and oversight in the ship’s management and operation."

TotalFinaElf notes that its shippers are requested to inform the Group if a major problem arises. This does not in any way replace the procedures for alerting the ship’s outfitter and officials in charge of maritime safety. The fact that the Group quite understandably asks for information does not mean that there is a hierarchical relationship between the crew and TotalFinaElf or that the Group exercises any sort of control over a ship it charters.

TotalFinaElf also notes that a ship in distress first contacts maritime authorities and then the closest ships in the vicinity and its owner. It never asks for direct assistance from the charterer, who has simply leased the vessel and has no authority to interfere in the management and safety of the ship and its crew. Proof of this lies in the fact that TotalFinaElf was informed of the accident some time after it occurred, and well after the other concerned parties.

TotalFinaElf intends to show that the Company and its employees in no way contributed to the charges made against them. TotalFinaElf believes that it fully respected maritime law concerning the ship’s management, supervision and operation, and that, therefore, the charges of complicity in endangering others and pollution are applicable.

TotalFinaElf will fully cooperate with the judicial authorities in this affair, as it has always done in the past.