Patrick Pouyanne, head of the energy giant TotalEnergies, will face a grilling next month over his group’s massive profits during the Middle East war from the French parliament’s finance committee, the committee’s head said Tuesday.
The company is among several oil and gas majors facing growing calls for a windfall tax to help offset the pain of higher fuel prices on consumers.
“With Total’s tax situation back in the news, I have decided to call Mr Patrick Pouyanne to appear before the Finance Committee. This hearing will take place on 17 June at 10:00 am,” the commission’s president, Eric Coquerel of the hard-left France Unbowed party, posted on X.
“Today, the issue of Total’s taxes — which in 2025 saw it pay zero euros in corporation tax — and the question we are asking… regarding price caps are topical”, Coquerel separately told AFP.
He said he had received a “positive” response from Pouyanne, who has appeared at several parliamentary and senate hearings since the 2022 energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, which helped stack up record profits for multinational oil firms.
This year, TotalEnergies and a clutch of other major energy firms saw their first-quarter profits soar, in its case by 51 percent to $5.8 billion, prompting calls for more taxes on their outsize gains.
Coquerel said that Pouyanne “will no doubt face some rather difficult questions, but I believe he is expecting them.”
TotalEnergies has implemented a cap on fuel prices at petrol stations in France and announced special offers for May bank holidays.
But Pouyanne said last week that such “socially responsible decisions” might be reversed if extra charges were brought to bear on its French operations.
(aw)
