1964 to 1970 : ELF AQUITAINE GROUP, PARIS

1966 to 1969 : ENTREPRISE DE RECHERCHE ET D'ACTIVITÉS PÉTROLIERES (ERAP)

1968/1969: Direction Economique et Financière, Département finances-budgets (ELF Recherche et Exploitation): I was involved as a trainee in the financial management of the affiliate "Société Pétrolière d'Afrique Equatoriale" (SPAFE) (establishment of budgets and monthly budgetary control, calls for funds, borrowings, reimbursements, diverse economic and financial studies, ten-year plan, etc...). During this period I participated in structuring a second Quebec-France refining project involving four equal partners, my employer ERAP, the "Compagnie Française des Pétroles" (CFP), Quebec's "Caisse de Dépôts" and the also Quebec based, "Mouvement Desjardins". The project fell when one of the partners withdrew in the summer of 1969 in spite of an attractive feasibility study. I then left the ELF group to set up SOQUIP.

1967/1968: ELF Distribution, Direction des lubrifiants: In this period I was part of a task force responsible for the creation of a full assortment of new ELF lubricants to replace the Caltex brand previously sold. This involved market studies for each of several hundred lubricants, the definition of a marketing strategy, the choice of which lubricants to offer and of a price structure, technical studies on their formulation and production, the choice, and international registration, of a coherent family of trademarks and the training of the sales force responsible for moving these new products. At the same time, I promoted a first Quebec-France refinery project which would have involved my employer ERAP for 30% and the Quebec Government for 70%. This project was shelved in favour of Ultramar's St-Romuald refinery.

1966/1967: ELF Distribution, Direction des Ventes Centralisées: As assistant to the director, I was responsible for evaluating several small petroleum products marketing firms in view of their purchase, and for several feasibility studies for small projects such as an asphalt plant, a pipeline for jet fuel etc...

1964 to 1966 : UNION INDUSTRIELLE DES PÉTROLES (UIP)

1965/1966: Direction des ventes spéciales: As export manager, I was responsible for setting export prices, for sales negotiations abroad (Europe, Africa and the Comecon counties), for after sales service, for credit and recovery etc...

At that time, the awareness that the growing discounts effectively granted on crude oil in the world market were being kept offshore and not passed on to the consumers in eastern Canada, led me to recommend to the Quebec government that a state owned oil refinery be set up to import crude oil at the real world price.

1964/1965: Direction des ventes spéciales: In this troubled period following Algeria's independence, my being French speaking but not French was an asset for my work in Algeria dealing with a local company Algeronaphte, in areas of technical and commercial assistance, training of Algerian nationals etc...