TotalEnergies first-quarter profits surge amid Middle East war

French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies said Wednesday net profit had risen 51 percent in the first quarter to $5.8 billion, boosted by higher oil prices linked to the war in the Middle East, drawing criticism from climate groups.

Growth in its oil and gas production in Brazil, Libya and Australia allowed the group to offset losses in the Gulf region, which is normally equivalent to 15 percent of its total oil and gas business, the company said in a statement.

It also highlighted its “ability to capitalize on rising prices”.

The company’s oil and gas production rose four percent in the quarter, with the amount of liquefied natural gas transported by sea gaining 12 percent.

TotalEnergies also said its trading arm had produced “a very strong performance.”

In early April, the Financial Times reported that TotalEnergies had earned more than one billion dollars by buying almost all of the exportable oil cargoes in the Middle East, at a time when US-Israeli attacks on Iran had closed the key Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices soaring.

“TotalEnergies’ war profits highlight our persistent dependence on fossil fuels, whose soaring prices once again benefit shareholders at the expense of consumers,” Antoine Bouhey, campaign coordinator at Reclaim Finance said in response.

Greenpeace France denounced a “cynical logic” while “households pay the high price at the pump”.

Soaring gas prices have revived a political debate in Europe on taxing windfall profits made on high oil prices, an idea to which French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in early April that he had “no objection in principle”.

On Wednesday, Lecornu called on TotalEnergies to commit to redistributing windfall profits “one way or another”.

The company said it was already doing so by limiting the increase in prices at the pump.

“That’s how we redistribute our profits,” TotalEnergies told AFP.

TotalEnergies also said it had partially restarted its Satorp refinery in eastern Saudi Arabia in mid-April, after it had shut the facility following air strikes in early April.

The group increased its dividend to 0.90 euros a share from 0.85 euros.

Shares in TotalEnergies were up 0.2 percent in late afternoon trading in Paris, where the bluechip CAC40 index was down 0.5 percent.

AFP