* Deal will be Total's biggest since Elf acquisition
* Total had kept an eye on Anadarko's Africa assets
* For Total's CEO, the deal was a match made in heaven(Adds Shell looked at Mozambique project, Chevron dropping bid)
By Bate Felix
PARIS, May 9 (Reuters) - It took Total's chief executive anda small group of advisers just days to line up the French energymajor's biggest acquisition in almost two decades when it agreedto buy the African assets of U.S. firm Anadarko.
Patrick Pouyanne pounced after Occidental Corptrumped Chevron's $33 billion bid for Anadarko in Aprilwith an offer that includes raising financing by selling some ofAnadarko's operations worth up to $15 billion. Chevron walkedaway from the race on Thursday.
By keeping those in the know to a minimum, the French CEOwas able to stay flexible in negotiations, take a swift decisionand ensure there were no leaks until the binding deal worth $8.8billion was announced on Sunday, a Total source said.
"Pouyanne proceeded in the same way he did with previousdeals: a restricted task force, no bankers and no externalcounsel," another source, close to the deal, told Reuters.
Throwing out the rulebook that expects CEOs to be surroundedby investment bankers and other advisers when dealmaking hasbecome a trademark for the 55-year-old CEO and chairman ofTotal, who took the helm of the French energy major in 2014.
He has taken investors by surprise with his acquisitions,such as buying Maersk's oil and gas business in2017 and Engie's upstream LNG operations in 2018,setting one deal in motion after an unsolicited phone call withthe controlling shareholder.
His strategy, which one analyst has called "opportunistic",has rapidly lifted Total's growth outlook. Total has madeacquisitions worth almost $20 billion in the past five years,under Pouyanne's leadership.
But the buying spree has increased debt and left its shareslagging rivals, such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP. His manner can also come across as brash, and industrysources say it was one reason a deal to buy a Libyan oilfieldstake has now run into a roadblock.
HEAVENLY MATCH
Pouyanne's move to buy Anadarko's assets, the French firm'sbiggest acquisition since taking over Elf almost two decadesago, will add 5 percent to Total's output by 2025, saidBernstein analysts, who rate Total's shares "outperform".
The assets stretching from Algeria to South Africa bolsterhis effort to refocus Total on operations in Africa, the NorthSea, deep offshore and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The dealdepends on Occidental (Oxy) completing the Anadarkomerger.
"Pouyanne quickly understood that it could be a match madein heaven because Oxy was mainly focused on Anadarko's Permianassets. And Pouyanne has repeatedly said he was not interestedin Permian," a source close to the deal said, referring to thePermian Basin where the U.S. shale oil industry is concentrated.
Total has built up a strong balance sheet under Pouyannesince the 2014 oil price crash, giving him the firepower toswoop on Anadarko's assets. But Total was also able to actswiftly because it has long had its eye on the Africanoperations.
"Total was already familiar with Anadarko's portfolio. Atsome point, they took a closer look at Anadarko's assets,particularly in Africa. There were some discussions, but theydid not go any further," an industry source said.
Another source said Anadarko had been looking for a partnerfor its Mozambique LNG project to tap an estimated 75 trillioncubic feet of recoverable gas.
Two days after Occidental announced its bid for Anadarko onApril 24, Oxy's corporate jet was on the tarmac in Paris.
UNDER WRAPS
Both firms declined to comment on the reason for the jet'sflight to Paris, although an industry source told Reuters thejet was flown in for a meeting with Total.
Another source familiar with the matter said OccidentalChief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub had flown in with anotherexecutive, without telling anybody, to discuss Anadarko'sAfrican assets with Total.
"Of course they (Total) had already thought about it. And Ithink they reached out to her and said 'Hey Vicki, if you happento win this, we would really be interested'," the second sourcesaid. "She did not let the phone get cold. She left and flew toParis overnight, met with them and heard their deal."
Occidental did not comment on the account.
A banking source said this deal was not the first time Totalhad held talks without bankers in the room. The source said itmade sense in this case because Total did not need financing andwanted to make a quick decision.
Shell, the world's top LNG buyer and trader, had beenconsidering an approach to Oxy for the Mozambique asset but wascaught off guard by Total's rapid move, a source close to thecompany said. A Shell spokeswoman declined to comment.
It was not the first time Pouyanne surprised the market. Hefirst made a splash in 2017 with the purchase of Maersk's energybusiness for $7.5 billion after an unsolicited bid made in aphone call to Ane Maersk Mc-Kinney Uggla, chairwoman of the A.P.Moller Foundation, which has a controlling stake, a corporatesource said.
"The deal was unplanned but it was a good fit. A banker gavePatrick the idea and he made it happen," the source said.
Maersk could not immediately be reached for comment.
But Pouyanne's manner does not always win over partners.
When he boasted to a U.S. energy conference about thebenefits to Total of his deal to buy a $450 million stake in aLibyan field from Marathon Oil last year, Libya'sstate-owned National Oil Corporation sought to re-negotiateterms, concerned it was too much of a bargain, industry sourcessaid.
Total has said it was in talks with Libyan authorities toresolve financial issues over the deal. NOC could notimmediately be reached for comment.
(Additional reporting by Ron Bousso, David French, DevikaKrishna Kumar, Gary McWilliams, Clara Denina and Stine JacobsenEditing by Edmund Blair)
