A number to make your head spin. The French energy giant TotalEnergies has made a gigantic net profit in 2021, amounting to 16 billion dollars (around 14 billion euros), taking advantage of the sharp rise in hydrocarbon prices, he said. announced Thursday. TotalEnergies benefited from the surge in hydrocarbon prices last year against a backdrop of global economic recovery and still limited production in some countries. The barrel of Brent from the North Sea was thus worth 70.9 dollars a barrel in 2021, against only 41.8 dollars the previous year.
In 2021, the group’s adjusted net profit (which excludes certain exceptional events and serves as a benchmark) reached 18.1 billion dollars, multiplied by 4.4 compared to 2020. These huge profits, in the midst of the energy crisis with increasing costs for households, had been the subject of criticism even before their publication.
BP and Shell also saw their profits soar
The environmental candidate Yannick Jadot had denounced this Wednesday profits “on the backs of the French and the French” while “the bills of gas and gasoline which increase, it is for the benefit of the shareholders”. “You just have to take them, so much the better,” rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon had launched in a meeting.
The good results of BP and Shell in the United Kingdom had also recently prompted calls for an exceptional tax. Faced with the current outbreak, TotalEnergies unveiled on Wednesday a discount at the pump in its stations located in rural areas in France, as well as a “gas check” of 100 euros for its gas customers in a situation of “fuel poverty”.