1924: Compagnie Française des Pétroles (CFP) is created.

	Ernest Mercier, CFP's 1st chairman, 1924 to 1940	In 1923, French President Raymond Poincarré, asks Ernest Mercier to create CFP

1927: First producing field discovered, near Kirkuk in Iraq, by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).
CFP is one of the original shareholders.  

	First oil from Baba Gurgur

1929: CFP is listed on the Paris Bourse.
 
Compagnie Française de Raffinage (CFR) is created by CFP with the participation of the French State and a number of independent French marketing companies, including Desmarais Frères, Lille Bonnières-Colombes and Société Française des Carburants. The State licenses CFR to refine 25% of the petroleum products required by the marketers.
 
1930: Second agreement is signed by the French State and CFP.
 
1933: CFP's first refinery is inaugurated at Gonfreville, near Le Havre, with an initial throughput of 900,000 metric tons of crude oil a year. Today, capacity is 15.9 million metric tons, making the refinery one of the Group's largest.
 
1935: CFP's second refinery is inaugurated in La Mède, near Martigues, in the Provence region. The facility's capacity is gradually expanded to keep pace with rising demand, with throughput increasing from the original 400,000 metric tons a year to 6.2 million today.
 
1936: Exploration begins in Abu Dhabi.
 
1937: The tanker Emile Miguet is commissioned.

	The 21,500-ton oil tanker operated by Compagnie Navale des Pétroles, a CFP subsidiary, was the largest of its kind in the world at the time.

1939: Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) expands its operations to Abu Dhabi, where Total still has its largest, most diversified presence in the Middle East today.