– CEO attributes French loss to struggling refineries in first half of 2025
– Total still paid 180 million euros via French tax on share buybacks
– Refining was bright spot in 2025 results
– Long-term trend of struggling refineries in Europe continues
Paris — French oil major TotalEnergies did not pay corporate tax in France last year because its operations in the country generated a loss of about 300 million euros ($356.07 million), CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Friday.
Pouyanne was asked in an interview how Total, which on Wednesday reported 2025 adjusted net income of $15.6 billion, escaped France’s corporate surtax on large companies — a measure that was supposed to be temporary but has been rolled over into the 2026 budget as France struggles with high debt.
“It so happens that in France our refining activities suffered enormously in the first six months of the year … and this activity was loss-making, with a fiscal deficit of 300 million (euros),” Pouyanne told TV station TF1’s Ecorama show.
“Globally our tax rate is 40%, which is higher than the French rates, so I’m not one to be given lessons … and we were the largest contributor to the French tax on share buybacks, with around 180 million (euros),” he added.
Refining Margins Halve over a decadeTotal’s refining and chemicals division was a rare bright spot in its 2025 results, earning about $2.4 billion — a 10% increase compared to 2024, in a year marked by low oil and gas prices.
The CEO warned that taxing large companies to balance France’s budget would lead to an investment pullback.
Refining Earnings Halve Over A Decade
Total’s refining and chemicals division was a rare bright spot in its 2025 results, earning about $2.4 billion — a 10% increase compared to 2024, in a year marked by low oil and gas prices.
But that was still half what the segment earned a decade ago, as new refineries in Asia and Africa have opened and
created competition for refineries in Europe.
Total holds stakes in six refineries in Europe out of 14 refineries worldwide. Three are in France.
Margins on refining fuels in Europe spiked in 2022 after the loss of Russian energy due to sanctions over the war in Ukraine, and again improved in the second half of last year as the U.S. sanctioned Russia’s Rosneft and
Lukoil — but the long-term trend continues, with major firms
shuttering petrochemical sites in Europe.
TotalEnergies will close one
steam cracker in Antwerp in 2027 due to an expected oversupply of ethylene. Pouyanne has
said there were too many refineries in Europe, but that he preferred converting sites to produce renewable fuels rather than closing them.
*America Hernandez; editing: Benoit Van Overstraeten, Inti Landauro & Susan Fenton – Reuters
