French energy giant TotalEnergies (PARIS:TTE) hailed “robust” results for the third quarter of the year despite a decline in margins.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné avoided mention of its UK upstream business in his statement announcing the firm’s third quarter results.
He has previously been critical of UK fiscal policy after it emerged the French energy giant was the largest North Sea tax payer.
The firm has selling off significant UK oil and gas assets including the Shetland gas plant seemingly in an effort to reduce its liabilities in the UK.
The firm’s quarterly figures reflected a decline in margins in its refining business, a problem shared by many oil and gas producers in the quarter. It’s adjusted net income declined 13% compared to the previous quarter.
© Shutterstock FeedPouyanné said: “In a volatile oil environment with sharply declining refining margins, TotalEnergies demonstrates the resilience of its integrated multi-energy model with $4.1 billion adjusted net income and $6.8 billion CFFO (cash flow from operations) in the third quarter of 2024.
“This resilience is firstly underpinned by exploration and production, posting solid adjusted net operating income of $2.5 billion, down only 7%, stable cash flow of $4.3 billion and an attractive return on capital employed of 15.6%.”
He pointed to the firm’s upstream production, including a “ramp up” of its Mero 2 project in Brazil, which it said partially offset production losses at Ichtys LNG and in Libya.
In the third quarter, TotalEnergies also production from its “high-margin” Anchor oil project in the US, as well as from the Fenix gas project in Argentina.
The company also launched the GranMorgu project in Suriname, which will support its production growth target of 3%/year through 2030.
The firm’s acquisition of a UK-based gas plant in Nottinghamshire was also mentioned.
The announcement did not reveal how much its agreement to sell its oil and gas fields West of Shetland to Prax Group was worth as the deal has not yet completed.
