The idea of Elisabeth Borne does not please Patrick Pouyanné. The CEO of TotalEnergies refuses to sell his fuels at a loss and “will not go lower” than the current price of 1.99 euros per liter currently set at his group’s service stations in France, he said. warned Tuesday.
The price of “1.99 is a ceiling, TotalEnergies’ policy will be ensured (…) I will not go lower. It’s already a significant effort,” he declared, questioned by a journalist from “Quotidien”. “This ceiling applies to approximately 3,000 stations today. So that means that the normal price is higher,” he added.
“Do you often sell products at a loss? »
The oil group, which manages a third of the service stations in France, announced last week that it would extend next year the cap at 1.99 euros per liter on the price of gasoline and diesel in its 3,400 stations. , “as long as prices remain high”.
“Do you often sell products at a loss? », further asked the CEO of TotalEnergies to his interviewer. “A little common sense, thank you,” he concluded. On Saturday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne lifted an old taboo by announcing that fuels could be sold at a loss. This measure, which will be the subject of a bill, should come into force at the beginning of December for a period of six months.
According to Le Figarosummoned Tuesday morning in Bercy by the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, the managers of Leclerc, Carrefour, Intermarché, Système U, Casino and Auchan expressed their unanimous opposition to the loss-making resale of fuel in parking lots of their hypermarket.
On this information, Bercy simply indicated that Bruno Le Maire and the Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs, Commerce and Crafts Olivia Grégoire had “addressed” the issue of selling fuel at a loss during this meeting with the bosses of the distribution. “Bruno Le Maire also recalled that independent stations will benefit from compensation” and that they will be “accompanied by a multi-year transformation plan aimed at allowing them to offer new services such as fast charging stations”.