Shareholders in Elf Aquitaine, which had resisted Total's initial takeover bid, will receive 19 shares of Total Fina for every 13 shares of Elf. Total Fina launched the takeover battle last July when it made an unsolicited 4-for-3 offer valued at $44 billion. Elf counterattacked with a $51 billion cash-and-stock bid for Total Fina.

The resolution, reached over the weekend, was a defeat for Elf's chairman Philippe Jaffre, 54, who will retire after the completion of the merger. Total Chairman Thierry Desmarest, 53, will lead the combined company, the two French companies announced today.

The merger creates "a quintessentially European supermajor," said Daniel J. Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates. It follows on the heels of British Petroleum's merger with Amoco last year and the still pending merger of Exxon Corp. and Mobil Corp. and of BP Amoco PLC with Atlantic Richfield Co.

Total Fina was created last December when Total acquired the Belgian refiner Petrofina.

The latest merger underscores "the global consolidation that is going on in the oil business," Yergin said.