MOSCOW (MRC) -- French energy company Total reported a better-than-expected net profit for the first quarter as high output and strong performance in refining and chemicals helped limit the impact of a prolonged fall in oil prices, said Reuters.
Net adjusted profit fell 37 percent to USD1.6 billion but beat the USD1.2 billion expected by analysts polled by Reuters. Total's shares were up 1.4 percent at 0722 GMT.
Weak oil prices have hurt the industry, with U.S. giant Exxon Mobil this week losing its Standard & Poor's top credit rating for the first time in almost 70 years.
Total said hydrocarbons production rose by 4 percent to 2.479 million barrels of oil equivalent per day compared with the same quarter last year, a level in the quarter last seen 10 years ago. Three start-up production from its Angola LNG, Bolivian Incahuasi gas field and Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan will enable grow production at 4 percent this year, Total said.
Total said in its downstream segment, although refining margins were down compared with 2015, the business had held up well and remained strong at the beginning of the second quarter.
"Refining & Chemicals improved its results compared to 2015 despite the decrease in refining margins to USD35 per tonne, thanks to a record high utilisation rate of 94 percent and favourable petrochemicals margins," Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement.
The company proposed to maintain its dividend unchanged at 0.61 euros per share, payable through cash and a scrip scheme. Like its peers hurt by prolonged low prices and market oversupply, Total said it was cutting costs and aimed to spend less than the USD19 billion it had planned for investments in 2016.
It said it was on target to achieve planned savings of USD900 million in 2016. The company said it had the lowest technical cost among oil majors in the upstream division at USD23 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe) compared with peers at USD26 to USD44 boe.
Its upstream division generated a net operating income of USD498 million in the first quarter. Total said it aimed to reduce its cash break-even point to USD40 per barrel compared with USD45 announced in February.
As MRC informed earlier, Total said that its refining margins in Europe had fallen to USD35.1/ton in the first quarter of the year. Europe's biggest refiner still reported a European refining margins indicator (ERMI) of USD38.1/ton in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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