ENRICHMENT: The oil group, TotalEnergies took advantage of the surge in gas and oil prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine
The profits of TotalEnergies are at their highest as a strike is renewed Wednesday morning in most refineries. The fifth-largest oil group in the world unveiled on Wednesday a net profit for the year 2022 of 20.5 billion dollars (19 billion euros), the largest in its history.
For the second year in a row, the French company is pocketing colossal profits, after the historic loss of 7.2 billion dollars in 2020 due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The group is doing better than the 16 billion dollars recorded in 2021, its previous record, driven by soaring gas and oil prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Biden denounces “scandalous” profits
As for its rivals ExxonMobil or Chevron, whose US President Joe Biden denounced the “scandalous” profits, the results of TotalEnergies were boosted by the strong comeback in demand for oil after the Covid-19 pandemic and even more so by the surge in hydrocarbon prices following the start of the war in Ukraine.
Given its results, TotalEnergies will grant its shareholders a total dividend of 3.81 euros per share for the year 2022, including 1 euro in exceptional dividend, already paid in December 2022, and it will cancel shares equity, which will mechanically benefit the historical shareholders.
These predictable benefits, unveiled in the midst of a climate emergency and a purchasing power crisis, when energy bills weigh on households and businesses, had caused a reaction even before their publication.
“For a fairer world and for the climate, we must put an end to the expansion of oil and gas projects,” Greenpeace France said on Twitter on Tuesday.
In France, the National Assembly opposed the idea of a taxation of these windfall profits.
