TotalEnergies Executive Worked With US Officials to Delay EU Methane Rules

François-Régis Mouton, formerly TotalEnergies’ vice-president of gas advocacy, has worked at the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) since 2018 and is its Europe managing director. Over the past 18 months, he and the London-based lobby group coordinated industry-backed letters and met Brussels policymakers in a campaign to delay the EU Methane Regulation (EUMR). The rules, originally due to take effect on 1 January 2027, set requirements for oil and gas importers. The IOGP says they are unclear, pose legal risks and could threaten energy security.

Trump administration officials cited key IOGP arguments after meetings with Mouton, including in a Financial Times opinion article published on 27 April and an email to EU member states on 20 October, DeSmog reported. The United States has become Europe’s biggest fossil-gas supplier since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On 6 November, the Council representing EU member states backed a one-year delay proposed by the Commission. The final decision must be negotiated with the European Parliament, which has voted for a three-year postponement.

The IOGP declined DeSmog’s request to interview Mouton. In a statement, it said it did not seek to weaken the regulation’s emissions-reduction goal or scrap it, but wanted rules that were “efficient, proportionate and that we can actually comply with.” TotalEnergies said it does not comment on employees’ personal social media views. It also said it supports balancing implementation of the methane regulation with energy security.

DeSmog found that Mouton shared or engaged with climate-sceptic and anti-renewable content on personal social media. The investigation said he belonged to three Facebook groups questioning human-caused climate change as of 29 October. In one August post, he wrote that “loads of CO2” was emitted in the Middle Ages and described current climate science as “so binary”; in January, he shared Donald Trump calling wind turbines “losers.” The IOGP and Mouton did not answer questions about the posts.

The dispute has raised questions about TotalEnergies’ public climate commitments and its industry affiliations. The company says it supports policies to measure and reduce methane emissions, including the EUMR. But a DeSmog analysis of lobbying registers, company disclosures and records obtained through freedom-of-information requests found that TotalEnergies belongs to 25 groups that have worked to delay or weaken the rules. It holds a leadership position in 13 and paid a combined €5.3 million to €9.8 million in membership fees to those groups in 2024, the analysis found. TotalEnergies left the American Petroleum Institute in 2021, citing its opposition to methane regulation.

TotalEnergies also imported twice as much US liquefied natural gas to Europe and the UK as any other company from 2021 to 2025, according to researchers at Oil Change International. Climate advocates argue that industry lobbying conflicts with the company’s stated support for methane action. The company did not answer questions about its trade associations’ work on the regulation.