I suppose you could attribute it to the air over Europe. French oil company Total SA (NYSE: TOT) has now become the second major integrated European oil company to post better results for the latest quarter.
The company chalked up net profit of $4.54 billion. That, for you avid score keepers, is a 29% improvement year over year. The company's revenue line improved by 3% to $57.4 billion.
Total's CEO Christophe de Margerie attributed the company's improved results to "the return to production growth, the high quality of (the company's) asset portfolio, and its efforts to limit the impact of cost inflation." Clearly also at work was a 2.5% increase in hydrocarbon production to 2.35 million boe per day. That increase was boosted by a 7% increase in the company's oil price realizations.
Total, which is a selection in good standing of Motley Fool Income Investor, thus joins Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) (NYSE: RDS-B) as the two major integrated companies to record improved results in this latest quarter. Sitting on the other side of the ledger were ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), Chevron (NYSE: CVX), and BP (NYSE: BP), all of which saw their earnings slide on lower refinery margins.
But beyond the pure numbers, Total is involved in a bevy of intriguing energy projects around the world. For instance, in the past quarter, it initiated production on two major production projects in Qatar and Norway, launched the development of a field offshore Nigeria, and reached an agreement with Gazprom to study the first phase of development of Russia's huge Shtokman field.
And without so much as stopping to catch its breath, the company also initiated construction of desulphurization units at refineries in the U.K. and Germany and began expansion of petrochemicals projects in Qatar and Korea. And, last but not least, it entered into a partnership to develop a petrochemicals complex in Algeria.
Add to Total's successful, cat-in-a-sandbox-busy quarter its forward P/E near 10.6 times and a forward dividend yield of 3.2%, and you just might have a company to love during these wild, whacky, upside-down times for the equities markets.
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