Total boosts earnings 49% despite euro’s rise against dollar

Allen Baker, Petroleum News contributing writer

TotalFinaElf, now named Total, reported a 48 percent rise in net first-quarter earnings to 2.12 billion euros. The Paris-based company made 1.37 billion euros in the fourth quarter, so the sequential gain is 55 percent.

While the strength of the euro against the dollar hurt, higher production and prices more than compensated.

In the upstream segment, operating income rose 32 percent to 1.41 billion euros. Gas production rose 7 percent to 4,926 million cubic feet daily, and liquids flow added 3 percent to 1,612,000 barrels each day. Both figures were roughly in line with the fourth quarter. Gains in the North Sea, Algeria and the Gulf of Mexico helped the results compared with the year-ago quarter.

Downstream income rose to 585 million euros, a gain of 134 percent from the 2002 first quarter as the company followed the industry trend of higher margins. Refinery throughput was up 2 percent to 2,435,000 barrels a day.

Higher feedstock prices pushed income from the chemicals segment down 5 percent to 115 million euros, excluding non-recurring items.

Sales for the quarter totaled 28.30 billion euros, up 19 percent from 23.78 billion a year earlier. It was also a gain from the fourth quarter’s 26.9 billion euros.