“A poorly designed extraordinary tax that has had a significant impact on our results and cash generation”.

Given that the new government rate only taxes income in Spain, the impact of the new tax affects Cepsa to a greater extent than other of its competitors (29% compared to last year's profits), since the The country is highly concentrated in energy, unlike other of its peers, whose turnover is more geographically diversified. Between January and June, the impact of the new tax for Cepsa has been 320 million.

In a context of normalization of energy prices after the escalation of the previous year, the company in the hands of the French fund Carlyle and the state fund of Abu Dhabi, Mubadala, has seen the margins of its refining activity fall, something that has compensated partly thanks to lower energy costs. “The refining margins are still good, although lower than those of the first half of 2022,” the group has qualified.

In this context, adjusted gross operating profit (adjusted ebitda) fell by 57% to stand at 742 million compared to 1,742 million in the first half of 2022. The company attributes this evolution to the lower volumes of the Exploration and Production business after the sale to TotalEnergies of its Upstream business in the Emirates, one of its main oil enclaves in the Persian Gulf for up to 1,500 million. Also to the drop in crude oil prices.

Wetselaar has emphasized that the aforementioned tax coup harms the company “in a context in which Cepsa is carrying out a profound transformation, going from being a traditional oil and gas company to a company at the forefront of the European energy transition”.

Thus, the company has highlighted that sustainable investments represented 39% of a total of 276 million euros in the first half of the year (compared to 218 million in the first six months of 2022), within the framework of the company's strategic plan. company, Cepsa Positive Motion.