Jean-Jacques Biteau died suddenly on May 3 due to a vascular accident. He was only 70 and still working as hard as he did during his full professional period. Biteau was a graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in Nancy, France in 1977 (master’s degree). He then started his career with Elf Aquitaine which in 2000 merged with Total (now TotalÉnergies). He held positions in affiliates in the Netherlands, Cameroon, France and Angola. It is worth remembering that Biteau was exploration manager in Angola when Girasol was discovered (800 million barrels of oil equivalent) and that he coordinated the appraisal of the field and pursued further exploration with the discoveries of the flowers of Bloc 17, including Dalia, Rosa and Lirio.
In 2000 he came back to headquarters in top exploration positions, ending as vice president of exploration in charge of consolidation of exploration programs and budget. During the 2000 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition in New Orleans, his presentation “Exploration Challenges in the Angola deep and ultra deep waters” won the best paper award.
In addition to being an oil finder, Biteau was a hard worker, tireless, generous and totally committed to education of the new generation of geoscientists through teaching, writing technical books and being very active in different associations. As a teacher, he gave courses at his company, in his alma mater, ENSG Nancy, and later in many universities all over the world within Total Professeurs Associés, a nonprofit organization.
As an author, he published a highly acclaimed technical book, “Géologie du Pétrole,” with François Baudin (Editions Dunod). He co-authored two articles in Historical Highlights of the EXPLORER, “Exploration Advances in France’s Aquitaine Basin,” May 2022 and “From Outcrops to the Champs Elysées, Petroleum Exploration in the Paris Basin”, March 2024. He was finalizing a new booklet entitled: “100 years of Exploration in France,” which will be edited by TotalEnergies.
As a volunteer, Biteau was president of the ENSG alumni from 2016 to 2022 and a member of the Advisory Board from 2012 to 2022. He was about to get a recognition for 20 years of membership in AAPG. He was a member of the Technical Committee from 2005 to 2009 and a member of the Corporate Advisory Board from 2008 to 2012, a judge for the Imperial Barrel Award and different sessions. Still an active member of AAPG, his main involvement was with the European Association of Geologists and Engineers, which he served as president from 2017-19 after retiring, with special attention to increasing the geological content of the Association. He was also about to chair, at the EAGE Toulouse 2025 June convention, a full day of presentations, three of them being presented by him.
In 2020, Biteau received the Prix Leon Bertrand from the Société Géologique de France.
He is survived by Marie Pierre, his spouse and their three sons, two of them working in the United States: Marius in San Francisco and Achille in New York.
Jean-Jacques, you, your energy, your humanity and friendship, will be missed.