TotalEnergies published record results on Wednesday thanks to very sharply rising profits. The French oil group is taking advantage of the rise in the price of a barrel caused by the war in the Middle East and relaunching the debate on the taxation of superprofits. For his part, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called on the company to redistribute any “exceptional profits”.

Published on: 04/29/2026 - 04:11 Modified on: 04/29/2026 - 22:00

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In the midst of war in the Middle East, TotalEnergies published results on Wednesday April 29 showing very sharp growth in profits in the first quarter, boosted by the surge in hydrocarbon prices which is weighing on consumer wallets. They revive the debate on the taxation of oil profits demanded by the left and certain European countries.

The French group, the fourth Western oil company in terms of turnover, is doing even better than at the start of 2022 following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

The oil and gas giant's quarterly profit jumped to $5.8 billion (4.96 billion euros), up 51% year-on-year, illustrating its "capacity to capture rising prices", declared its CEO, Patrick Pouyanné, in a press release.

Building on these performances, the group has decided to reward its shareholders with a dividend up 5.9%, to 0.90 euros per share compared to 0.85 euros until now. It is the “highest dividend growth among the oil majors”, he said, triggering angry reactions from the left and environmental associations.

“Total is taking advantage of the war to explode its profits,” denounced Insoumise and vice-president of the National Assembly, Clémence Guetté, while Greenpeace France spoke of a “cynical logic” while “households pay the high price at the pump”.

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“Everything for the shareholders!”, also castigated François Ruffin (Debout!), ex-Insoumis. The Socialists have announced their intention to table a bill on Wednesday in order to tax “the super profits of crisis profiteers”.

On Tuesday, the British company BP also presented a sharp increase in quarterly net profit, to $3.8 billion, driven by gains from its oil trading activity.

Fuel cap

In recent weeks, the surge in hydrocarbon prices has relaunched the debate in Europe on the taxation of oil superprofits. On Wednesday, the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, called on TotalEnergies to "redistribute in one way or another" its possible "exceptional" profits linked to the war in the Middle East.

“If there are exceptional results, that raises the question of redistribution,” declared Sébastien Lecornu in the Senate. “TotalEnergies must position itself in one way or another on a way of redistributing (...),” added the head of government.

To which the group responded that it was already contributing to purchasing power. “This is how we redistribute our profits”, indicated the group in a statement to AFP, stressing that it had put in place “without waiting to be asked, a policy of capping fuels from which the French benefit” since February 2023.

“We intend to continue this capping,” added the company, without specifying how long it would extend it beyond April 30.

At the beginning of April, the Prime Minister said he had no "objection in principle" to the idea of ​​taxing oil superprofits, referring to the initiative taken by five European countries (Spain, Austria, Germany, Italy and Portugal).

"We're not denying ourselves anything," government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on Wednesday, while calling for people not to "fall into 'Total Bashing'."

Trading in force

Despite the war in the Middle East which shut down part of its sites in the Gulf, the group managed to stabilize its hydrocarbon production thanks to the start-ups and ramp-up of new projects in Brazil and Libya.

So much so that “the higher oil price observed since the start of the crisis largely compensates for the loss of production in the Middle East”, indicated Patrick Pouyanné, addressing analysts.

Also read: Kerosene, CO2, fertilizer, food... The chain effects of blocking the Strait of Hormuz

Triggered on February 28 by the offensive of the United States and Israel against Iran, the war in the Middle East led in response to Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic corridor where around 20% of the world's oil and gas usually transit, which caused a sudden drop in supplies and a surge in prices, also against a backdrop of high volatility.

In this context of disruption, the group benefited from a 12% increase in its production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), especially in Australia and Malaysia.

Its refining units also operated at full capacity, at more than 90% of their capacities, “thus capturing the exceptional margins in March”, when the prices of refined products soared, the group underlined.

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Beyond their sharp rise, gas and oil prices have also been very volatile, with oil even approaching $120 per barrel in March, the first month of the war, which TotalEnergies "traders" were able to exploit in hydrocarbon trading (purchase and sale) activities.

At the beginning of April, the Financial Times revealed that TotalEnergies had generated more than a billion dollars in profits by purchasing almost all exportable oil cargoes in the Middle East, without passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

This extraordinary operation was not denied by the company, which only said it had to “secure its supplies”. It can now count on the partial restart of the Satorp refinery in Saudi Arabia, shut down after strikes at the beginning of the month.

With AFP

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