Like other industry heavyweights, Total faces a very degraded oil environment where excess supply has melted over half of crude last year and even more than 70% since mid- 2014 to flirt with $ 30 a barrel.
“ You have to be good on what we control our expenses. We will therefore continue to make efforts to control our expenses ,” said the giant CEO french oil and gas, Patrick Pouyanné, a few journalists.
Total anticipate investing more than $ 19 billion in 2016, against a previous target of 20-21000000000 and 23 billion invested in 2015, he said in a statement. The amount will then be 17-19 billion from 2017.
The operational cost reductions will be strengthened. They are expected to reach $ 2.4 billion this year after $ 1.5 billion last year (exceeding the target of $ 1.2 billion), exceeding 3 billion in 2017, mainly in the exploration and production.
The exploration budget, already cut by 30% last year, he will suffer a new pruning of over 20% to $ 1.5 billion, reflecting a strategy of discovery of new reserves less ambitious and less risky than in the past.
Meanwhile, the hiring freeze that has led the group to reduce its workforce by 2,000 people in 2015 (approximately 100,000 employees) will be continued, said Patrick Pouyanné, without giving a precise figure.
“ is the same policy will apply in 2016, not to replace people who leave all ,” he said. But “ no layoffs behind these numbers. I’ve said many times, the Total employees are not an adjustment variable “, he insisted.
– The boom refining –
The oil price slump weighed on Total’s results in 2015, but they fell less strongly than expected by the consensus analysts compiled by FactSet.
Net profit even increased by 20% to $ 5.1 billion, escaping massive writedowns that had gnawed in 2014. Conversely, adjusted net income, closely watched indicator the market which excludes volatile items such as stock effect, decreased 18% to $ 10.5 billion for a turnover cut by 30% to 165.4 billion.
“ This is a good year, has weathered “, welcomed Patrick Pouyanné, noting that his group did better than other majors in the sector as BP, Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil, the belt will be tightened as a notch to limit the damage of the fall of the black gold.
Ironically, while the refining operations weighed on the results of Total in recent years, they now bring some oxygen to his finances, hit by exploration and production.
Their adjusted net operating income almost doubled to $ 4.9 billion, benefiting from a major restructuring in spring 2015, combining expenditure control, reduction of European capabilities and site conversion. France has even written into the green.
“ The downstream is the nice surprise of the year “, welcomed Patrick Pouyanné.
Total has decided to maintain its dividend for 2015 to € 2.44 per share, with again the option of payment in shares, enabling it to reduce the amounts disbursed.
The staff also continues to build up its production this year (+ 4%) due to the start of five major oil and gas projects, after rising 9.4% in 2015 to over 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboe / d) which has enabled it to limit the damage.
This increase in production eventually will benefit him the rebound in oil prices, which would, under Patrick Pouyanné, when oil will run out due to the current curbing of the project development in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment