French major TOTALEnergies has gone out to poach a senior executive in a close rival to head its global exploration. The company announced Nicola Mavilla, who was Head of Exploration Projects at the Italian explorer ENI, to replace the retiring Kevin McLachlan as Senior Vice President Exploration. Mr. Mavilla starts work on November 1, 2025.
By taking Mavilla on board, TOTAL is repeating what it did when it hired McLachlan, who was Executive Vice President, Global Exploration and Business Development at Murphy Oil, and Vice President, International Exploration and eventually Vice President, Global Exploration at CNOOC International. McLachlan joined TOTALEnergies in 2014 and held the position of Senior Vice President Exploration for 10 years between 2015 and 2025.
The one thing that’s clearly French about Mavilla’s CV is that he holds a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Bordeaux.
TOTAL and ENI have strong and growing portfolios in Africa, where they appear more bullish than their British and American counterparts, including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil. They also target frontier exploration on the continent than the other majors. In the last three years that TOTAL has discovered billions of barrels of crude in Namibia, ENI has announced similar large sized discoveries in Côte d’Ivoire. Indeed, Mavilla superintended ENI’s astounding successes in Côte d’Ivoire.
Mr. Mavilla’s appointment would suggest that TOTAL acknowledges ENI’s strong exploration successes and was willing to “domesticate” it.
“Nicola Mavilla has a strong track record in leading successful exploration activities. He joined ENI in 2002 and served as exploration manager in Libya and Norway, VP exploration for West Africa, VP exploration for Americas and Northern Europe and managing director of ENI Côte d’Ivoire. Since 2024, he was Head of Exploration Projects”, TOTAL says.
TOTAL explains in the release that it “invests around 1Billion dollars annually in exploration and appraisal”, adding that “the company’s exploration activities led to major discoveries over the past three years, notably in Suriname and Namibia”.
