The executive “welcome” a possible new rebate at the TotalEnergies pump mentioned by the CEO of the group, which has just announced more than 19 billion euros in profits worldwide, government spokesman Olivier Véran said on Wednesday February 8.
“I have heard Total’s desire to set up a rebate and we welcome it”, declared Mr. Véran during the report of the Council of Ministers. The Minister said he understood that the amount of profits announced by TotalEnergies “may shock”but assured that these 19 billion euros in profits “are not made in France, far from it”.
Record profits for Total in 2022
The French major made the largest profit in its history, thanks to the surge in gas and oil prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine, resurrecting calls to tax “super profits” more and to stop the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
The French company unveiled on Wednesday an annual net profit of 20.5 billion dollars (19 billion euros), following 16 billion in 2021, its previous record. But its exceptional profitability is better reflected in the 36.2 billion in adjusted profit, which notably excludes 14.8 billion in accounting losses linked to the gradual withdrawal of its activities in Russia.
In December, the group ended up distancing itself from its main Russian partner, the gas giant Novatek, while retaining its presence in huge LNG operations in Russian Siberia, including the Yamal LNG project. In total, the group received $1.5 billion in dividends related to Novatek and Yamal in 2022.
Associations growl
During the night, activists from the StopTOTAL collective had put up posters in ten cities in France to denounce “illegitimate profits”. And in the morning, a handful of members of Alternatiba Paris and Friends of the Earth sprayed the facade of the headquarters in La Défense with red, to denounce a mega oil project in Uganda/Tanzania, at the heart of a legal battle. in Paris.
“Scandalous” profits, according to Joe Biden
The year 2022 will go down in history for the oil “super majors”: the insatiable hunger for oil and gas, combined with the war in Ukraine, has given them record profits, and everything indicates that the profits will be there. you in 2023 too.
Four of the five majors (Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies) broke their net profit record in 2022, while BP set a record for profit excluding exceptional items.
A total of $151 billion in net profit was raked in in 2022. Adjusted profits, which better reflect profitability by excluding accounting losses caused by withdrawals from Russia, are closer to $200 billion.
Enough to attract the wrath of governments and NGOs, in the midst of an energy and climate crisis. On Tuesday, United States President Joe Biden judged these profits “scandalous”.
The deputy Insoumis François Ruffin denounces the “complicity” of the State
The deputy Insoumis François Ruffin denounced Wednesday the “state complicity” in the “predation of the nation” by large groups such as TotalEnergies which announced record profits, believing that this “resonates with pension disputes”.
“The State normally has the responsibility of coming to rebalance the scales, of coming to be in favor of the weak and coming to tax the strong a little”, said the deputy. Gold “the smaller you are, the bigger you are taxed, the bigger you are, the smaller you are taxed”.
“For 3 years we have been asking the French to ration themselves and we have Total and company gorging themselves, and Bruno Le Maire (the Minister of the Economy, editor’s note), does he move a finger? “continued Mr. Ruffin, regretting “this feeling of injustice which hurts the hearts of the French people today”.
“We work, we pay our taxes and it’s hard to live on it and during this time, there are the big guys up there who escape it and who benefit from complicity.”
Mr. Ruffin appealed “economic police to protect the French”installed “at the top of the state”, so that “it is not the lords who accumulate fortunes and do not pay taxes on them”. “What happens instead? It’s as if at the head of the police, we had placed Al Capone!”
“Shocked”the boss of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, suggested that the profits and dividends paid to shareholders, “fruit of labor”are no longer spared from social security contributions: “This is a subject that deserves reflection in the law”he said on LCI. “Jackpot the Climate Destroyers”reacted Greenpeace.
