PARIS (Reuters) – The high amount of refining margins raises questions and could require decision-making by the government, French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.
Anxious to act against inflation, the French government is putting pressure on industries which it says are taking advantage of high prices to increase their profit margins at the expense of consumers.
“We have a question about the amount of refining margins,” Bruno Le Maire told journalists.
“I will have the opportunity, with (the Minister of Energy Transition) Agnès Pannier-Runacher, to question the economic players concerned on the reasons for these high margins and which we will take necessary decisions to avoid, in this area- there, as in others, there are excessive profits being made by economic actors,” he indicated.
Bruno Le Maire has put pressure on distributors in recent months to lower the cost of the consumer’s trolley and he confirmed on Tuesday that the government intended to tax the excess profits of motorway companies in the 2024 budget.
The Minister of the Economy also welcomed this week the decision of TotalEnergies to extend the cap on the price of gasoline beyond the end of 2023.
Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday that he had spoken with representatives of oil-producing countries at last week’s G20 summit and that everything indicated that Saudi Arabia intended to continue limiting its production.
“We have a target price of 86 dollars per barrel. I say this with great caution,” said Bruno Le Maire.
(Reporting Leigh Thomas; Camille Raynaud)
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