(Le Figaro, Bertille Bayart, April 8, 2026)
TotalEnergies has decided to cap fuel prices at its 3,300 service stations in metropolitan France, offering a ceiling of 1.99 euros per liter for gasoline and diesel to gas and electricity customers and 1.99 euros for gasoline and 2.09 euros (later raised to 2.25 euros) for diesel to others, creating a true private shield that protects both consumers and the government at a time when the State can no longer afford the “whatever it takes” approach.
This commercial policy, announced cautiously for short and renewable periods, has attracted a huge crowd of motorists to TotalEnergies pumps, generating queues, crowding, and stock shortages affecting up to a quarter of the group’s stations, creating an atmosphere of scarcity despite national strategic reserves not being threatened.
The government is in difficulty because it cannot launch a massive tax cut as Italy and Spain have done, must offset any aid with spending cuts, and risks having to open the discussion on a windfall tax, while TotalEnergies is politically attacked for its trading profits but in fact plays the role of a “useful scoundrel” ensuring the country’s supply in a context of strong international competition for hydrocarbons.
Victim of its own success
“Since early March the group has been capping its prices. For motorists this policy does not equal a good government reduction of 30 cents like in 2023 nor a frank tax cut like in Italy or Spain, but constitutes a private shield that protects both consumers and the government at the same time.”
Stock shortages and atmosphere of scarcity
“The influx of customers created the inevitable: supply shortages that reached up to a quarter of the stations on Monday. You didn’t have to be a great seer to predict such a result announcing an expiry date for the cap at the end of a long weekend, which added precautionary refueling to the consumption of large departures.”
TotalEnergies’ cautious position
“TotalEnergies proceeds cautiously. Its subsequent announcements of caps valid each time for a few days or weeks prove it. How to commit to a price that the evolution of the Middle East conflict can explode in a few hours? These conditions are likely to evolve, specifies the repeated advertising on radio waves in recent days.”
Political criticism and windfall tax
“The company has been as much if not more attacked than the executive. The information that TotalEnergies took delivery of about 70 oil tankers at the beginning of March is considered only from the angle of profits made from this good trading move, never from the angle of securing the resource. The government has no illusions: it will have to open Pandora’s box of the tax sooner or later.”
Strategic role of the French major
“With a national major, France is one of the rare purely importing countries able to secure its supply other than with the sole argument of the checkbook. TotalEnergies is the useful scoundrel of the crisis: it takes the hits and makes money. It’s a profession.”
(Excerpt from the newsletter by Giuseppe Liturri)
