TotalEnergies posts record profits as it keeps a lid on fuel prices

€1.99 for a litre of petrol and €2.25 for diesel. The price cap Total Energy has maintained since July has been a magnet for French motorists. I've made the plan. I filled my tank for €52. If I went to Esso or others, it would have cost €70 or €80. €30. Thank you. Everyone chooses Total because it's cheaper, so I don't think they're taking much of a loss. The energy giant says it has lost half a billion euros over the past few months as a result of the price cap. But it's made more than enough money to offset it. In the three months to September, the group raked in $9.1 billion in net profit, up 51% from the previous quarter and more than doubling from a year before. The war in Iran caused a supply crunch from the Persian Gulf, but the company says the impact was limited to only around 5% of its oil and gas production. Excluding the Middle East impact, overall production rose 4% year-on-year thanks to a ramp-up in projects elsewhere, including Africa and the US. Above all, reduced fuel-making capacity caused by ongoing conflicts has increased demand for its facilities, with prices of refined products like diesel soaring much higher than those of crude. The increase of nearly 10% refining throughput enabled the company to fully capture historically high refining margins in Europe and worldwide Total has strongly pushed back against a proposed windfall profit tax, threatening to scrap the price cap at the pump if it were included in next year's budget in France.