The head of French energy company TotalEnergies has hailed the “opportunities” created by the turmoil in global markets, saying it gave the oil major more ways to make money.
“The disruption in the energy world . . . gives us plenty of opportunities if you’re able to capture them,” Patrick Pouyanné told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London on Monday.
“I prefer the world of disruption to the peaceful world. There are more opportunities, but you need to have the assets.”
TotalEnergies is one of the oil companies most affected by the conflict in the Middle East, with about 15 per cent of its global oil and gas production exposed to the fighting in the region.
Nevertheless, in common with other oil majors, it has enjoyed a year of bumper profits, which rose 47 per cent in the first half of the year to $11.4bn. Total recently said it would increase the amount of money it spends on buying back its shares to $2.5bn in the last three months of this year.
Pouyanné said Total’s integrated business model, which sees it produce, refine and trade oil and gas, was a key advantage in times of crisis.
“We’re doing really well by being integrated. Integration means your refineries in Europe, which you thought were liabilities, are suddenly becoming goldmines,” he said.
Pouyanné is an outspoken figure in France, while Total is regularly the target of criticism when energy prices surge.
The French government has been trying to roll out measures to help shield the most vulnerable and quell public discontent. Total, for its part, has been subsidising prices at the pump in order to appease public opinion and ease the situation.
Pouyanné also told the conference that he had stopped his teams selling liquefied natural gas from declaring force majeure and halting shipments to customers.
Instead, he said the company had calculated it could absorb the roughly 10 per cent hit to its gas volumes and enjoy a “unique proposition” to show customers that it could be relied upon to supply them despite the global crisis.
TotalEnergies last week laid out its plans to grow its production to 3mn barrels a day of oil equivalent by 2030, and Pouyanné said investors in the sector tended to reward the companies with the biggest production.
“Size matters, the premium is given to the largest company. We cannot just remain where we are today. Let’s be the leader of this market,” he said.
He also said that after years of hiding the depths of TotalEnergies’ portfolio from investors, investors were once again asking about reserves.
“Five years ago, it was impossible to speak about it. In 2020 to 2022 we were hiding our reserves figures. I said to my people they [investors] don’t like it. Now today it’s becoming perfect KPIs,” he said.
Additional reporting by Sarah White in Paris