Oil and gas company Total S.A. announced that Peter Herbel, senior vice president and general counsel, will retire in December after a 17-year career with the company.

Herbel, who joined the company in 1996, has served as senior vice president and general counsel for the past nine years, reported The Lawyer.

Maarten Scholten will replace Herbel, effective Jan. 1. Scholten currently sits on the board of directors at BW Offshore, a provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry. He previously spent 20 years at oilfied services giant Schlumberger, where he was director of legal service, head of finance, president of Schlumberger Oilfield Services for Europe, Africa and CIS and director of mergers and acquisitions. Scholten started his career at Dutch firm Loeff & van der Ploeg, now part of Allen & Overy.