TotalEnergies announces a profit of more than 5 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023

Despite falling gas and oil prices, TotalEnergies said on Thursday April 27 that it had earned a net profit of 5.1 billion euros in the first quarter of 2023, up 12%.

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From January to March 2022, the French giant had recorded a net result of 4.45 billion euros, however taking into account a large provision, the consequence of a depreciation of 3.7 billion euros in assets due to sanctions against Russia.

The group is offloading a highly polluting activity

At the same time, the group announced the sale of its oil sands operations in Canada to SunCor Energy for 3.7 billion euros. A sale that is part of a strategy to reduce its carbon footprint after the announcement at the start of the year of a plan to split up its Canadian assets. This sale, which concerns all the shares of the Canadian subsidiary of the French group, TotalEnergies EP Canada Ltd, should be finalized “before the end of the 3rd quarter of 2023”said the group in a press release issued alongside the first quarter results.

The oil sands of western Canada form a vast deposit of crude oil of which Canada is the main producer in the world. They are made up of sand, water, clay and a type of petroleum called bitumen, which are too heavy and thick to flow freely, resembling molasses, explains the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers website. (CAPP).

This exploitation is highly criticized by environmental NGOs for its effect on the climate. Indeed, the processes that make it possible to transform the oil sands into fuel release three to five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil, declare Friends of the Earth in a sheet devoted to the subject, according to which this activity “results in pollution, the destruction of forests and disturbances of wildlife”.