If you want some good 80's nostalgia, play Toto's "Africa." If you want a good investment idea amongst the major oil companies, and one that has major interests in Africa, take a look at France's Total SA (NYSE:TOT), a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation.

Since we've heard this basic tune a few times already from the likes of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), BP (NYSE:BP), and Chevron (NYSE:CVX), I'll try to be brief. Revenue growth was a solid 19% (as measured in euros) as a 34% increase in price realizations offset a 6% drop in production. Better producing margins lifted operating income in the upstream operations, while tougher refining margins and higher costs hurt operating performance in the downstream and chemicals businesses.

Proven reserves ended the year flat with last year, while reserve replacement was 95%. That's not great (usually 100% replacement is the target to hit), but I think it's important to look at that number in a larger context. Namely, Total has a lot of new projects coming online in the next year or two, and those should boost reserves and production through the end of the decade.

Total does a fine job of making its quarterly information available to English-speaking investors, so I'd encourage any shareholders (or prospective investors) to go to the company's website and dig deeper into the financials themselves.

While I don't normally give any attention to stock splits, investors in Total's ADRs should realize that the company is planning some equity splits, whereby a single Total ADR share would become equivalent to one share of Total's underlying stock. At present, the ratio is two ADRs to one share of the underlying stock.

It may seem to defy common sense to consider buying these shares when the energy sector gets hammered on a daily basis, but that might be just the ticket. It's possible that the peanut-gallery hecklers trumpeting the end of energy are right, but I don't think that's too likely. With a fair dividend, reasonable growth prospects, and a strong position in Africa (one of the world's most promising energy-producing regions), Total is a major energy company worthy of major consideration.

It's gonna take a lot to drag us away from further Foolishness:

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).