Paris - French oil giant Total on Wednesday announced a 4.0 percent decrease in net profit in the second quarter while increased output, costs savings and improved refinery margins helped offset a 44 percent plunge in oil prices.
The group said it would exceed its projected $1.2 billion (1.09 billion euros) in cost savings this year, adding that it sold off 20 percent of its Laggan-Tormore gas fields north of Scotland for 800 million euros.
Total announced a net profit of $2.97 billion in the April to June period, compared with $3.1 billion in the second quarter of 2014.
Analyst predictions collated by FactSet had averaged $2.85 billion.
“The 12 percent increase in production over the past year demonstrates that our growth strategy is working” despite the shutdown of Total's LNG plant in Yemen “for security reasons”, the group said in a statement.
It announced hydrocarbon production of 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for the period.
AFP