Windfall profits, continued: Total doubles its earnings, exemplary conduct is no longer enough, a rule is needed

The figure came out on Thursday 29 October and immediately inflamed the debate. TotalEnergies reported net profit of 8.3 billion dollars for the third quarter of 2026, or about 7.45 billion euros, according to Planet.fr and LCP. That is more than double the same quarter of 2025, when the group posted 3.7 billion dollars. At the same time, according to the same sources, diesel averages more than 2.35 euros a litre in France, while the group's stations cap it at 2.25 euros.

The facts

According to the specialist website L'Automobiliste, adjusted net income reached 9.1 billion dollars, up 128% year on year. Brent crude averaged around 97 dollars a barrel over the quarter, compared with 69 dollars a year earlier. The refining and chemicals division reportedly generated 3.5 billion dollars in operating income, compared with 687 million a year before, and European refining margins are said to have quadrupled.

CEO Patrick Pouyanné, in the group's press release as reported by Planet.fr, attributes this performance to high prices, refining margins at historic levels, and the company's integrated model and geographic diversification. The context is well known: the war in the Middle East has been pushing prices up since the spring.

The State, for its part, is releasing 10 million barrels from its strategic stocks onto the market from 1 November, according to Planet.fr and L'Automobiliste. The government expects a drop of 12 to 18 cents a litre, provided the benefit is passed on in full at the pump.

The positions at stake

The government is avoiding confrontation. Its spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, said on BFMTV that there was no need to "sink into Total bashing", LCP reports, and that France was lucky to have a major oil group in the middle of a crisis. She is, however, asking the company to be "exemplary": to pass on the benefit of the barrel release through lower prices and to maintain its price cap for as long as necessary.

This position has its own logic. The retail fuel market is open to competition and the group is listed on the stock exchange; the executive is therefore relying on public pressure rather than coercion, Planet.fr points out. TotalEnergies, for its part, argued in a statement published in the spring that most of its oil and gas profits are earned and taxed in producing countries, and that an additional tax in France would, in its view, amount to double taxation. The group says it has paid an average of 25 billion dollars in taxes a year worldwide since 2022.

On the left, the response is head-on. La France insoumise MP Aurélie Trouvé demanded on X that the government "freeze prices", joined by Manuel Bompard, while Danièle Obono is calling for a "tax on windfall profits", according to LCP. The Rassemblement national takes a different angle: Marine Le Pen called "unbearable" a remark by Economy Minister Roland Lescure on fuel taxation, and MP Julien Odoul promises to cut VAT on fuel from 20% to 5.5%.

Analysis

First, one of the government's arguments deserves fair credit: having a national energy champion is an asset for sovereignty, and the price cap applied in the group's stations has a real cost, which Patrick Pouyanné himself estimated on Public Sénat at around 500 million euros by the end of the year. But a parliamentary report led in July by Socialist MP Philippe Brun found, according to LCP, that this cap was a "commercial strategy" aimed at winning customers, not a selfless gesture. Set against a profit of more than 7 billion euros in a single quarter, the effort looks modest.

The sweeping VAT cut proposed by the RN would benefit all motorists regardless of income and deprive the State of revenue at the very moment the 2027 budget is struggling to find a majority. The general price freeze advocated by LFI runs into other limits: it does not target the most exposed households and raises the question of independent stations, which are already weakened.

That leaves the heart of the matter, which the call for exemplary conduct does not settle. When a geopolitical crisis transfers billions from households to a company's accounts, the question is not moral but political: who pays for the war? Social Gaullism has always held that the general interest takes precedence over windfall rents, and that the State is not a mere commentator on the market. The Brun report already set out precise options: a levy on exceptional profits, temporary taxation adjusted to the price of fuel, and better-targeted support for low-income rural workers. The report noted that by mid-June, the 100-euro allowance had been claimed by only 700,000 of the 2.9 million people then eligible: a scheme reimbursed after the fact does not solve end-of-month shortfalls.

Conclusion

Asking TotalEnergies to be exemplary is a wish; setting the rule is a duty. Rather than choosing between complacency and invective, the government could propose, as part of the budget under discussion, a temporary levy on refining profits made in France, fully earmarked for fuel support targeted at low-income households that have no choice but to use a car. National solidarity should not depend on the goodwill of a board of directors.

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.