Total International Ltd has promoted Mauritania-national Lamine Kane, managing director of Total Ethiopia for the past 15 months, to the company’s headquarters in France and replaced him with Frenchman, Bernard Lacaze.

The new appointee arrived in Ethiopia on November 4, 2006 and officially received the position on Friday November 17. Lacaze had been working in China for the past five years. Kane left the country yesterday to take up his new position at the Paris headquarters.

Kane, who was highly respected by both Total employees as well as fuel truck companies for being a good manager, was promoted to head of a Total department leading eight Central African country operations.

During Jean-Jacques Le Grand’s managing days, before Kane’s arrival at Total Ethiopia, strong disputes had broken out between the fuel company and the Total Ethiopia Fuel Transport Truck Owners Association, with its roughly 300 trucks.

As disagreements heightened, the Association wrote a letter to Total Ethiopia appealing that it make the proper payments for the service they had rendered in accordance to the tariff the government had set for fuel companies to pay transporters.

The letter also requested that the company assign fuel trucks fairly. Le Grand responded by tearing up the letter in front of the Association representatives, escalating tensions further.

The truck owners took Total to court and to the Trade Practice Investigation Commission. Both legal bodies ruled in its favour.

One of the charges brought against the fuel company was based on the fact that Total Ethiopia had held back over six million Birr in payments of services. The Federal High Court ruled for the Association, ordering the company to pay the amount. The second appeal was made because Total refused to assign 10 of the Association’s chairman’s trucks.

Moreover, Total issued a tender to contract fuel transporters that were not individual or part of any Association, but private or share companies. The Commission accepted the argument and penalized Total by fining it 20,000 Br.

With all the controversy, the Total office in Paris sacked Le Grand and replaced him with Kane. His arrival brought the beginning of discussions between the Association’s leaders and the company.

As a result, Total decided to cancel the tender and assign all trucks that were held from transporting its fuel. Moreover, it returned the Gulele Total station that Le Grand had confiscated from Tsega Asamere, the chairman of the Association. For its part, the Association dropped all the charges as well as rulings it had received from the courts.

Total Ethiopia, who used to sign individual contracts with fuel truck owners, two weeks ago signed an all encompassing contract with the Association after months of negotiations between the transporters and Kane.

“The gentleman (Kane) knew how to convince those he dealt with,” a staff member of Total Ethiopia told Fortune. “He has enabled our company to resurface from the controversies it was stuck in.”

“He came along and put a stop to the continuous disputes we were having and that makes him a good leader,” said an Association a management staff.

Kane on the other hand believes that if anything, the one event that could be considered a success would be the merging of Total Ethiopia and Mobil East Africa. As far as the resolution of the disputes with the transporters go:

“I was doing my job,” Kane told Fortune.

The American fuel company Mobil, which had been Total’s competitor in Ethiopia for over 30 years, sold all its properties in East and Central Africa, including Ethiopia, to Total two years ago. The sale was approved by the Ethiopian Government during Kane’s management and since a month ago, fuel stations with the Mobil logo have started being replaced by that of Total.

After the merger, Total’s number of fuel stations grew from 129 countrywide to 227, increasing its market share from 21pc to 40pc. At the same time, the number of Total employees has risen from 160 to 227.

Attempts made to talk to the newly appointed managing director by Fortune were unsuccessful.