London (Platts)--3Aug2011/707 am EDT/1107 GMT

Total made clear Wednesday it saw no grounds for concern over the decision by a French judge to refer the company and its CEO Christophe de Margerie to the courts over alleged violations of the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.

The decision, which emerged late Tuesday, followed an earlier move by the judge, Serge Tournaire, in April 2010 to pursue the case against Total, de Margerie and 17 others including the former minister of the interior Charles Pasqua.

The investigation into Total and the individuals was launched in 2002, and Total said there was "nothing new" in the latest developments.

In April 2010, Total acknowledged it has been charged with corruption and influence-peddling relating to the Iraqi oil-for-food program.

"We are confident about the trial's outcome and that Total will be cleared of these allegations and the charges to be dropped," a company spokesman said.

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The danger to the company and its CEO is minimal, reports in the French media suggested, while a source said Wednesday the case was "a lot of noise about nothing."

Pasqua's lawyer, Leon-Lef Forster, told French radio he had "no concern whatsoever" about his client being cleared.

The case against Total, de Margerie, Pasqua and others is expected to go before the criminal court in Paris in 2012 or early 2013.

NO CORRUPTION

Tournaire's decision to pursue the case came as a surprise as the French prosecutor's office has already requested twice that the case be dropped.

Total is also adamant it has done nothing wrong, pointing to a report published in 2005 by a UN independent committee headed by Paul Volcker.

"The Volcker Report, issued by the independent inquiry committee into the UN oil-for-food program, found that no corruption had occurred," Total said.

De Margerie was held for questioning for 48 hours in 2006 over allegations that Total had in effect bribed Iraqi public officials in order to purchase oil in violation of a strict embargo.

At the time, Total said that "at no time did the group circumvent the United Nations embargo against Iraq and strictly adhered to the rules of the oil-for-food program."

Total added then that "all oil acquired by the company, without exception, was purchased officially with the required authorizations under UN within the framework of the oil-for-food program put in place in 1996. The group has never purchased, either directly or indirectly, oil that has been smuggled illegally from Iraq."

The oil-for-food program, set up by the UN Security Council while Iraq was under sanctions as a humanitarian program to allow Iraqis to sell oil and buy food and medicines with the proceeds, ended after the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003.

In October 2005, the Volcker report was damning in its assessment of the $100 billion, seven-year program.

It lambasted "serious vulnerabilities in the program" and "failures in UN oversight and management."

--Stuart Elliott, stuart_elliott@platts.com