(Business in Cameroon) - Formerly Managing Director of Perenco Peru, the Frenchman Benoît de la Fouchardière has just been named Managing Director of Perenco’s Cameroonian subsidiary, the nation’s oil production leader since buying out Total Exploration-Production in 2010. This was revealed in the La Lettre du Continent publication.

Benoît de la Fouchardière, who will officially assume his new post in Cameroon this August, replaces Denis-Clerc Renaud, who rose to the head of the organisation in 2009. In five years, he was able to raise the British oil company’s production from 6,000 to 65,000 barrels per day, thanks in particular to the acquisition of Total Exploration-Production’s assets.

Denis-Clerc Renaud, who will now head Perenco in Gabon, is also credited with the setting-up of the Kribi natural gas plant, in partnership with KPDC, and the successful test drives of the first domestic gas-based cars in the country, in partnership with Société nationale des hydrocarbures (SNH).