Total Posts $5.7 Bln Q4 Loss Amid Fall In Oil Price; Lifts Dividend

(RTTNews) - French oil company Total S.A. (TOT, TTFNF, TTA.L) posted Thursday a hefty loss in its fourth quarter, reflecting significantly higher impairments and weak revenues amid falling oil prices and lower production. Further, the company announced a quarterly dividend of 0.61 euros per share, resulting in annual dividend of 2.44 euros per share, a growth of 2.5 percent from last year.

In response to the recent fall in oil price, Total plans to lower its organic investments by more than 10 percent to $23 billion to $24 billion in 2015 from $26.4 billion in 2014. The company will reduce investments in brownfield developments and stop or cease certain less profitable projects.

The company further said it completed 2012-2014 asset sale program and plans to accelerate the execution of its 2015-2017 asset sale program of $10 billion by selling $5 billion of assets in 2015.

For the fourth quarter, Total's group net loss was $5.66 billion, compared to net profit of $2.23 billion in the comparable quarter last year.

The latest results mainly included negative after-tax inventory effect of $1.99 billion, compared to last year's $103 million negative impact. Further, the company recognized impairments of about $6.49 billion, essentially related to Canadian oil sands, unconventional gas, mainly in US., and refining in Europe.

Adjusted net income, which excluded certain items, declined 17 percent to $2.8 billion, or $1.22 per share from $3.39 billion, or $1.49 per share last year. Expressed in euro, adjusted earnings per share for the latest fourth quarter were 0.98 euros, a 10 percent decrease.

Adjusted net operating income from business segment declined 27 percent from last year to $2.80 billion. This mainly reflected a 48 percent drop in upstream segment due to 30 percent drop in Brent price, and a 26 percent decline in marketing & services. These negatives were partly offset by more-than-doubled profit in refining & chemicals segment.

The firm's sales were $52.51 billion in the quarter, down 19 percent from $64.98 billion in the previous year.

During the quarter, Hydrocarbon production was 2,229 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day or kboe/d, a 2 percent decline compared with the fourth quarter 2013. Excluding ADCO license expiration in the United Arab Emirates, hydrocarbon production grew 3.5 percent.

After a long period of stability around $110 per barrel, oil prices fell dramatically in the second half, ending the year at $55 per barrel, the company noted.

In Paris, Total shares were gaining 0.48 percent to trade at 47.17 euros.