War in the Middle East: TotalEnergies assures that the price cap caused it to lose 200 million euros

His words will not fail to provoke a reaction. The CEO of TotalEnergies affirmed this Wednesday that the capping of the price of its fuels in France had caused his group a shortfall of around 200 million euros since the start of the war in the Middle East. At the same time, TotalEnergies recorded 4.96 billion euros in profits in the 1st quarter, a jump of 51% over one year…

“The ceiling is lower than the cost price,” he assured a parliamentary committee. Patrick Pouyanné suggested that in the current context, he was selling his fuel at a loss due to this cap. “We are at approximately 200 million euros” in cost for this fuel cap since the start of the conflict. This is an approximate calculation, based on what the group would have charged as prices in its service stations regardless of the crisis, he specifies.

“We can’t want to take the same money from us twiceâ€

The CEO responded for more than two hours to questions from deputies of the Finance Committee on his taxation and the question of superprofits, and from the rapporteur of the flash mission on fuel taxation. The group is regularly criticized for the low level of its corporate tax in France compared to its global profits and especially since the conflict in the Middle East has boosted its oil revenues, which has relaunched the debate on the advisability of taxing “superprofits”.

Before the deputies, the boss once again defended his capping mechanism, appreciated by consumers and welcomed by a government with meager budgetary margins, repeating that he was “the only oil company” to have it done in the world. “So, criticizing this measure […] I admit I have difficulty understanding it,” he reacted, also repeating his threats to withdraw the cap in the event of overtaxation. “If Parliament moves towards additional taxation, we will learn the lessons from it […]. “We can’t want to take the same money from us twice,” he warns.