I'm here with Patrick Pouyanné, he's chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies. The amazing thing about Total is it's a European energy company but it uses its money from oil and gas to do stuff in power and alternative energy. That's a model that not a lot of other companies actually subscribe to, so it's great to get your perspective, Patrick. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for welcoming me. News of the day: we just heard that we have an emergency electricity issue in the United States. President Trump is now declaring 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada. Your reaction to a trade war?
I think it's not, I think this war should, I hope it will end quickly. I think it's better not to have wars, to be honest. Maybe it's a tactic to negotiate. And I think honestly, all these economies are interconnected in North America. In many ways, the cars parts, etc., including by the way electricity. Of course, the northeast of the US is receiving electricity from the hydro of Canada for the benefit of the citizens. So there are a lot of issues. I understand also about drugs, migrations, it's not only about trade. So my view is that as a global company, it's better to hope that it will be solved quickly. That's all what I can hope in the benefit of all the parties. And like it was for Trump one, I remember was a debate at the end. Maybe the shortest would be the better for everybody, including by the way for the US economy.
So does it make you think two or three times about investing in the United States?
No, why not? No, because I'm an energy company. Energy, you have a nice country for energy. You have the cheapest gas, you have oil, we can explore, we can develop in electricity. A booming market of electricity. You need more electricity, it's going to cost more now, no, yeah, but it's good. So we can build gas plants, cheap gas, gas power plants. We are building also in Texas. We are in Texas today. I have 5 gigawatts of solar plants. It was easy to build here because you have a lot of space. Combining plants with renewables with gas plants is a nice way to produce more electricity. So for me, the US is a large market and we are ready to invest in the US. I understand that the only point is that if we need to source, for example, all the solar panels that we use on our renewables, why not? It's just a little more expensive, so the customers will have to pay somewhere. So not you, but the end market. Yeah, okay.
But then let's just tackle say offshore wind for a second.
In the wind, I put it in a pause. A pause or like the garbage pile?
No, not garbage. Are you worried about any existing leases that you currently have and operating for wind and solar?
I was talking to the Secretary of the Interior who didn't rule that out yesterday. No, to do what? To take away those leases? But the leases he can manage that on federal land. So I check, I have no leases on federal lands. So and by the way, in Texas there is no federal lands almost. So no, no, we make our due. So we are fine. And I think honestly, when I discuss, by the way, Elon Musk is a big fan of solar and batteries for good reasons. So I think and we will see the debate. I'm sure the debate at the Congress and the Senate would be interesting with the reconciliation bill. So that's clear that for the time being we'll wait to see what are the new fiscal conditions to develop solar in the US. But you know, there are a lot of red states where we develop solar boards. And again, what's the priority for President Trump administration? We want more electricity for AI, for data centers. It's all of the above. More electricity, it's gas, it could be nuclear, but it could be also renewables with batteries. So I'm optimistic. I think at the end, common sense in the US, what they observed at the end, business interests are always respected. And you have fundamentally the Trump administration is very business friendly. So why not for energy, which is at the core of all the program? So I'm optimistic.
Globally though, I mean we're looking at stocks taking a hit, the sentiment is not great. There are worries about a recession either in the US or elsewhere because of tariffs. Are you seeing any indication of that?
Yeah, but what? Because you know what, people hate uncertainty. What has been created is uncertainty with all these tariff wars. So suddenly we don't like the market. The stock markets do not like we don't know where we go. So putting the tariffs is a nice way to negotiate. I can use it myself from time to time. I'm not sure obtaining the good results, but short tariffs please, that's all. But the markets are saying to the administration, we don't like uncertainty. We are changing the world, where do we go? So I think the shorter will be the better for all the interests, including fundamentally for the US economy. And I'm sure that President Trump and his administration are very led by the health of the US economy, which was not too bad in fact. So stop this uncertainty. But I think the best thing to do in order to avoid recession and things which honestly the US economy should not get again.
For China for example, if China puts a tariff on US LNG, that does directly impact your business. You're a huge gas and LNG trader. So how does it?
It does not impact. Why not? I will tell you why. Because the Chinese are smart. If they choose that product, it's because it has a little impact. Because in fact, a company like Total, we produce LNG 40 million tons in 12 countries. So yes, my energy from the US will not go to China because there is a tariff, but I will use the energy from Qatar or from Australia to go to China. So in fact, we made the analysis, the impact on China is very minimum, almost nothing. And for honestly today for us, we are the largest exporter of US energy, more than 10 million tons. Our primary market is more Europe today. So we bring to Europe, which is fitting by the way exactly with the Trump administration policy to expand the trade with Europe through energy, and in particular energy.
