as much hated as adored, this tricolor flagship divides the French

On the occasion of this anniversary, environmental activists have been carrying out actions for several days, throughout France, against the climate impact of the oil and gas giant. A symbol of national power, the group still suffers from a paradoxical image in France.

The oil giant is celebrating its century of existence, not without some upheaval. Tuesday March 26, to celebrate this anniversary, TotalEnergies organized a large private evening at the Palace of Versailles. Environmental activists from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were invited, with a banner “Let’s end the reign of oil and gas”. They denounced 100 years, not of production but “of destruction”.

A paradoxical image

TotalEnergies, in France, is both a symbol of success and a reviled giant. Among the top 5 oil companies, present in 120 countries around the world, the group has 100,000 employees, a third of whom in France, and generates 90% of its turnover abroad.

When prices at the pump soared, the oil company was a hit with its gasoline capped at 1.99 euros per liter, but its symbol of omnipotence, with record profits – 20 billion euros last year – makes him perceived as an exploiter of wealth and a polluter. We remember the sinking of the Erika. For these reasons, TotalEnergies arouses both admiration and detestation in France.

In 1924, creation of a company to serve the country

Founded on March 28, 1924, under the leadership of Raymond Pointcaré, TotalEnergies was initially the French Oil Company. Created under the status of a limited company, its aim was to ensure France’s oil supply.

The company also links its success to a first oil well in Iraq, in 1927, and to the pharaonic pipeline project which followed, built across Syria, to supply France. After the Second World War, the company merged with Elf-Aquitaine and Petrofina, it was privatized in the 2000s. And after the long reign of CEO Christophe de Marjerie, the group has been led for almost ten years by Patrick Pouyanné. An unclassifiable boss, willingly provocative, the latter describes TotalEnergies as “a 100% private national asset”.

Clear future for TotalEnergies

Today, the group wants to support the ecological transition by increasingly becoming a multi-energy company, with solar, wind, and especially electricity. Within five years, TotalEnergies aims to become one of the 10 largest electricians in the world. And by 2050, the firm predicts that oil will not even represent 10% of its sales, compared to 43% today.