Total: petrol stations cap fuel price at 1.99 euros

Gas station in Paris

The oil multinational Total Energies promises that diesel and petrol at its French filling stations will cost less than two euros a liter this year.

(Photo: IMAGO/IP3press)

Paris The French President made a clear statement when he visited a market in the Paris suburb of Rungis on Tuesday. Emmanuel Macron suggested a “small gesture” on fuel prices. It would be desirable for Total Energies to introduce a tank discount, as it did last year.

A day later, the boss of the French oil company appeared on the evening news and followed Macron’s line: “At all Total Energies filling stations, the prices for petrol and diesel will not exceed 1.99 per liter in 2023,” said CEO Patrick Pouyanné on the TF1 station .

However, the price guarantee should only apply to the company’s around 3,400 gas stations in France. The upper limit does not apply to Total petrol pumps in the rest of Europe – not even in Germany, where the group operates the third-largest network of petrol stations with around 1,200 locations.

Diesel currently costs 1.83 euros per liter in France, premium petrol E5 around 1.90 euros, and the trend has recently been slightly upwards. In Germany, prices are a good ten to 15 cents lower.

French government: Total decided

When asked, the French Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the decision on the tank discount was entirely up to Total. However, since the start of the Ukraine war with its effects on energy prices, the company has been “permanently in contact”. When asked whether Total should not also give a discount to drivers in other European countries, it said: “We have no instructions to give to a private company.”

But the impression is that the wishes of the French government are being listened to very carefully at Total headquarters. After the group announced at the beginning of February that it had earned around 19 billion euros last year, more than ever before in the company’s history, the pressure from politics increased. Several members of Macron’s government called on the company to put another cap on fuel prices.

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Energy expert Jean-Michel Gauthier of the Paris business school HEC said that Total Energies agreed to cap prices at the pump at the government’s request. It was also important for the group to maintain its image on the home market in view of the record profit.

However, the government cannot force Total Energies: the French state has not held a stake in the fourth-largest oil company in the world for some time, and the majority of shareholders come from Anglo-Saxon countries.

At Total Energies it was said that the fuel price cap would be limited to France “because of the company’s historical roots in the country”. With a market share of 25 percent, the group is the leader in the gas station network. In addition, much of the company’s value chain is located in France, from refineries to oil storage facilities. The position on the German market is different.

In the Federal Republic of Germany, Total petrol stations are particularly well represented in the southwest on the border with France and in the eastern German federal states. The French oil company Elf, which later became Total, took over the state-owned Minol gas stations in the former GDR after reunification.

Worry about new “yellow vest” movement

As a measure against inflation, Macron introduced a fuel discount last year that was between 10 and 30 cents per liter. Even then, his government had urged Total Energies to give customers in their home market a further reduction of 20 and later 10 cents per liter in addition to the state discount. That cost the group around 550 million euros.

The perks for all motorists expired at the end of 2022 and were replaced by a fuel allowance of 100 euros that low-income commuting workers can apply for. Macron’s government justified the more targeted measure with the fact that the broad-based tank discount would overwhelm the state budget in the long run.

However, concerns about a renewed increase in petrol and diesel prices are evidently driving the President, even if they are currently still below the two euro mark. Four years ago, dissatisfaction with high fuel costs gave rise to the “yellow vest” protest movement.

More: France’s energy giant EDF writes a record loss of 18 billion euros due to a nuclear power slump

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