2024-04-26 07:29:00
[Article publié le vendredi 26 avril 2024 à 09h29 et mis à jour à 10h27] This is a sunny start to the year for TotalEnergies. The French oil major recorded a net profit of $5.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024, further improving its results by 3% compared to the first three months of 2023, this Friday. The group, however, displays an adjusted Ebitda (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) – the profitability indicator most followed by investors – down 19% compared to the 1st quarter to $11.5 billion.
Its results are part of a “ environment marked by oil prices (nearly 90 dollars per barrel of Brent this Friday, Editor’s note) and sustained refining margins, but declining gas prices », declared the CEO of the company Patrick Pouyanné quoted in the press release.
The latter estimates in particular that the results from the start of the year are “ in line with its ambitious objectives for the year 2024. »
TotalEnergies increases its oil production
The company which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, “ once once more demonstrates this quarter the relevance of its balanced transition strategy anchored on two pillars, hydrocarbons and electricity », Commented the manager.
Between January and March, the group increased its hydrocarbon production by 1.5% year-on-year, notably thanks to the ramp-up of oil projects in Brazil, and gas in Oman and Azerbaijan, host country of the COP29 climate conference next November. Its production of hydrocarbons for liquefied gas (LNG) also increased by 6% year-on-year, driven by projects in Qatar and Nigeria. Its LNG sales, however, eroded by 9% over the quarter due to lower demand due to a mild winter and high gas stocks.
TotalEnergies has benefited greatly from the volatility of oil prices in recent years. As a reminder, in 2022, the French major recorded a record profit of $20.5 billion, riding on the surge in prices and oil – to more than $120 per barrel compared to $40 in 2020 – in the wake of the war in Ukraine. Since then, prices have calmed down significantly, but they remain strong for oil due to geopolitical unrest in the Red Sea and the war in the Middle East. This did not prevent the group from pocketing, once more in 2023, a new record profit of $21.4 billion, the best result in its history, in particular thanks to its profitable strategy on liquefied gas, its priority.
With all these benefits,The group confirms that it will devote 17 to 18 billion dollars to its investments in 2024, including 5 billion for the production of electricity from gas or renewable sources.
A multinational under fire from critics
Although the energy company has diversified into renewable electricity, it remains widely criticized for its continued investments in fossil fuels, which are harmful to the climate. In 2023, TotalEnergies notably announced projects or acquisitions in Namibia, Suriname and Brazil, and it strengthened its position in the United States in liquefied gas (LNG), an energy highly coveted by Europe which seeks to replace Russian gas. “ We are still permanently linked to the importation of liquefied natural gas into Europe », affirmed in mid-January Patrick Pouyanné, the CEO of the group which claims the place of 3rd global player in LNG.
In September, the group attracted further criticism by announcing that it wanted to increase its hydrocarbon production by 2 to 3% per year in the next five years, while several oil companies such as Enel, Shell and BP announced a review in 2023. falling from some of their energy transition objectives.
Under pressure from climate and human rights activists, the group is the target of several legal actions once morest its strategy or once morest its gas and oil projects, including the very controversial Tilenga/Eacop project in Uganda and Tanzania. It maintains that these projects are still necessary to meet global demand, and argues that it also devotes a third of its investments to low-carbon energies, particularly in wind and solar power. TotalEnergies intends to maintain its target of 35 GW of renewable electricity capacity in 2025, before 100 GW in 2030, an ambitious objective.
Separation of powers
Furthermore, the group announced on Friday that it had refused the inclusion on the agenda of the general meeting of shareholders of a resolution proposing to separate the functions of general manager and chairman of the board of directors, which combine the CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
« The unity of the power of direction and representation of the company is part of a context of particularly well-regulated balance of powers », justifies the board of directors in a press release.
A coalition of shareholders representing 0.62% of the market capitalization of TotalEnergies had submitted this draft resolution, purely consultative, which aims “ to put an end to the accumulation of functions of president and general directorl”, while maintaining Patrick Pouyanné in his position as CEO. For the shareholders initiating the consultative resolution, the excessive concentration of “ powers in the hands of one and the same person » poses risks of conflicts of interest.
The text was submitted by the Ethos foundation, which represents pension funds in Switzerland and a coalition of 19 international investors, coordinated by the French organization Forum for Responsible Investment (FIR), including Achmea Investment management (Pays- Low, 218 billion euros of assets under management), Candriam (Belgium, 144 billion) or AP7 (Sweden, 102.4 billion).
« We have never had, under French law, a company which included a consultative resolution on the agenda of its AGM on the unification or dissociation of functions », Underlined an executive close to the board of directors. “ There is no precedent, it does not exist ».
As a reminder, the board of directors voted last September in favor of reappointing Patrick Pouyanné for a 4th term of 3 years, which the shareholders must still approve at the end of May.
Among the companies listed in the CAC 40, the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange, a dozen of them combine both functions. News might be added, the Publicis group having recently announced that it wanted to modify its governance in this direction, on the occasion of its General Meeting of May 29.
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