ROME - The head of Total's operations in Italy was arrested Tuesday as part of a probe into a 15-million-euro bribery scandal involving oil-drilling contracts in southern Italy.
A family friend requesting anonymity told AFP that Lionel Levha, who was named to the post in June 2007, was arrested late Tuesday morning.
"The director general is being questioned," a Total spokeswoman said by telephone from Paris, declining to give her name. "Police had a mandate to search the offices of Total Italy, and in this framework some members of the company will be questioned," she said.
Levha, who is in police custody, was among 15 people named in the case, including a lawmaker from Italy's centre-left Democratic Party, Salvatore Margiotta, the ANSA news agency reported.
Parliament has been asked to waive Margiotta's parliamentary immunity so that he can be placed under house arrest, ANSA said.
Margiotta is accused of asking for around 200,000 euros (275,000 dollars) from an entrepreneur in exchange for backing his contract bid.
Proclaiming his innocence, Margiotta said he was voluntarily resigning his seat temporarily, adding that he was "stunned and bitter" over the probe.
Jean Paul Juguet, in charge of the Tempa Rossa project in the southern region of Basilicata, is also named in the probe.
The accused face charges including criminal association and graft, notably in tender negotiations.
The prosecutor in the case is English-born Italian Henry John Woodcock, who became prominent through a string of probes into high-profile scandals.
ANSA said searches were under way and that prosecutors had sequestered several companies, without elaborating.
Total signed an agreement with the Basilicata regional authorities in October 2006 to develop the Tempa Rossa oil field in the southern Apennines.
Initial production is set for 2010, with peak production of around 50,000 barrels per day, according to the Total website.
Total is the operator of the project with 50 percent interest, while the rest is shared by ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Italiana and Shell.
The French company has been present in Italy for around 50 years, with stakes in other exploration licenses in the Apennines and a retail network of more than 1,400 service stations, according to the website.