The fuel limit at 1.99 euros per liter represents 600 million euros, estimates France director of Totalenergies, Isabelle Patrier. “We calculated for 2022 what the ceiling of 1.99 euros represented. It represents around 600 million euros,” the manager told the BFMTV microphone on Thursday.
Under pressure from the government, Totalenergies announced Wednesday night to cap fuel prices at 1.99 euros per liter. The measure is valid for all fuels (gasoline and diesel), with the exception of high-end Excellium diesel and unleaded 98 products.
It will affect all of the 3,400 service stations that Totalenergies owns in France, including the Access and Elan stations, says the company, which concentrates around a third of some 10,000 French service stations. The measure will come into effect from February 25 on highways and from March 1, in all stations.
“Last year, in 2022, there were peaks at 2.40 [euros le litre]. We don’t want our customers to have to bear prices of more than 2 euros per liter” of fuel, explained Isabelle Patrier on BFMTV.
“You should know that today, 4 stations out of 10 charge prices of more than 2 euros,” says the general director of Totalenergies.
Total benefits, “good news for the French”
“That is why we decided to limit prices to 1.99 euros per liter,” he explained. Totalenergies, which made 19 billion euros of profit in 2022, had been under pressure from Emmanuel Macron since Tuesday to make a “gesture” in this period of high inflation, caused in particular by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“These 19,000 million euros in benefits for the purchasing power of the French are good news,” Isabelle Patrier responded to Michel-Edouard Leclerc. On BFMTV a little earlier this Thursday, the president of the strategic committee of the E.Leclerc centers had invited Totalenergies to “make one more effort” given the “fabulous benefits it has obtained”.
“These 19,000 million euros precisely allow us, throughout 2023, to position ourselves with a ceiling of 1.99 euros”, argued the general director of Totalenergies, inviting the rest of the distributors to follow this “effort”.
Pump prices in France remain the same for now under the symbolic bar of 2 euros. However, the European embargo on Russian diesel, in force since early February, could make diesel more expensive in the future. Last week, diesel sold in France at an average price of 1.8382 euros per liter, and unleaded 95-E10 at 1.8776 euros.
Source: BFM TV
