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An environmental regulator on Friday encouraged Cambodia’s donors to study multi-million dollar payments by France’s oil giant Total to acquire the rights for the exploration of an offshore region in Cambodia.

London-based Global Witness appealed to donors to “ask some tough questions and get some answers” regarding petroleum concession revenues, following Tuesday’s announcement of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on a $28-million deal with the oil company.

“We welcome the prime minister’s openness on this latest round of oil payments”, said Global Witness campaigner George Boden in a statement. “But we still don’t know whether the money from Total has turned up in national accounts because the information has not been made public”.

Total has secured the right to explore natural gas and oil in the ‘Block 3’ – Cambodia’s offshore in the Gulf of Thailand.

Hun Sen said on Tuesday that $8 million would proceed to “social fund”, as he disclosed the price given by Total.

The premier also denied claims that the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton had given a huge bribe for an exploration deal in Cambodia and said that the money had also proceeded to a social fund.

The environmental watchdog said in a meeting of aid donors in June that “questions regarding oil and mining payments made to the Cambodian government should top the bill”.

A local media report said foreign assistance to Cambodia will top $1 billion this year during the June meeting when international donors make their vows.

Cambodia was instantly feted as the next potential petro-state in the region after the oil discovery in 2005.

However, concerns have been raised on how Cambodia, which is among the most corrupt nations in the world, will exploit its newly discovered gas and oil wealth.

Total, the top oil company in France, has been accused of influence-peddling in the 1990’s oil-for-food programme of the UN in Iraq. This is the first instance of probing into a firm included in France’s CAC 40 stock index due to allegations of corruption.

On 27 February, investigating judge Serge Tournaire decided to charge Total and several other defendants, confirmed the company on Tuesday.

“In early 2010… a new investigating judge decided to place Total SA under formal investigation on bribery charges as well as complicity and influence peddling”, said the firm during its annual report issued the previous week. It was later confirmed to the AFP news agency by a lawyer.

UN’s oil-for-food programme, which ran from 1996 until 2003, permitted Sadam Hussein’s government to trade oil in order to purchase humanitarian supplies.

In 2002, a French probe was opened to examine charges over employees of Total and other officials of France paying off authorities in Iraq in exchange for privileged rights to buy oil in cheaper prices in the course of the programme.

The French oil giant, however, denied the allegations. “The Company believes that its activities related to the oil-for-food programme have been in compliance with this programme, as organised by the UN in 1996”, it stated in its annual account.

The programme has long been bombarded with corruption and mismanagement charges, involving employees of the UN and a number of international companies.

A UN investigation, headed by Paul Volcker, a former US Federal Reserve chair, revealed that 2,200 firms, including 180 French companies, had spent around 1.8 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros) to secure the supplies.

On Tuesday, Total lost in its appeal to reverse a Paris court ruling that found the oil firm guilty of neglect over a shipwreck and oil spill off the Brittany coast in 1999.

The appeals court confirmed the guilty verdict and a 500,000 dollars (375,000 euros) fine was imposed on the French oil company in the 2008 ruling.

The oil giant was found guilty of neglecting to consider the age of Erika, a tanker, and also of disregarding maintenance issues when it hired the 25-year-old ship.

The tanker was carrying heavy fuel oil that weighed 30 tonnes when it cracked and drifted off the Brittany coast on 12 December 1999, polluting a huge area of the coastline and killing seabirds in the process.

The criminal court in Paris had also ruled in 2008 that the company and three other entities would pay 192 million euros as compensation to civil plaintiffs.

The appeals tribunal affirmed the ruling of the lower court that the tanker’s manager and owner, together with the Italian RINA certification company that found the vessel to be fit for the sea, also had faults.

This decision in one of the worst environmental tragedies in France created a lawful precedent through the realisation that polluters can be considered liable for causing harm to the environment.

After the oil spill, beach resorts in France were abandoned, shellfish consumption was banned and fishing was stopped, and this greatly hampered the French economy for years.

Joseph Valantin, the presiding judge, said that Total had “committed an error of negligence that is linked to the sinking” of the tanker.

The judge added that the vessel sank as a “direct consequence of the serious rust corrosion”, and that this was due to the “insufficient maintenance of the ship”.

The French president has asked oil giant Total for assurances that it will not close its refineries.

Nicolas Sarkozy met with the troubled company’s chief executive Christophe de Margerie yesterday in a bid to calm the continuing row over the future of the French workforce.

Total workers at French refineries have been taking part in ongoing strike action, which is threatening the country’s fuel supply.

The president’s intervention comes only weeks before French voters go to the polls in regional elections.

A spokesman for the French government issued a statement following the meeting saying: “The government wants Total to make commitments not to close its refining operations in the coming years.”

While the company head met with the country’s leader, Total bosses were in a nine hour negotiation with union bosses from the CGT –which has resulted in the suspension of the strike by their members.

Union spokesmen told reporters that “significant advances” had been made during the talks.

But members of the Sud union, most of whom are employed at Total’s Dunkirk base, have decline to call off the industrial action.

The ongoing strikes have led to panic buying by drivers, with queues forming at pumps as motorists attempt to ensure they do not run out of gas in coming days.

Service station company Elf yesterday confirmed that 249 of their branches had already suffered shortfalls in fuel supplies.

Following their intervention in the Renault Clio production row, the French government has once again stepped in to try and secure the jobs of French workers threatened by closures.

This time round Paris officials are demanding assurances from oil giant Total over the proposed closure of the Flandres oil refinery in northern France.

The French Industry Minister, Christian Estrosi, told reporters yesterday (Monday) that the government would impose stringent conditions on the closure of the site, near Dunkirk, which currently employs more than 600 full and part time staff,

The site, which produces 137,000 barrels a day, is earmarked by total for redevelopment as a centre for technical support and refining training.

But Mr Estrosi said that no closure would be allowed to take place until the future of the Flandres workers had been assured.

He told reporters: “There will be no refinery closure until there are guarantees regarding a new operation which will ensure that jobs are preserved.

“I say very clearly, the government will be firm. We will not accept a unilateral decision unless there is a full commitment to preserving jobs at the refinery.”

However business commentators have questioned the minister’s powers to intervene in the business decision of a non-public company in which, unlike Renault, the French government holds no large stake.

Total has pledged to continue as an “economic partner” of the Dunkirk area.