PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - French oil major TotalEnergies reported a 13% drop in fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, slightly missing expectations, as soaring margins on refining fuels and cash from
TotalEnergies Cuts Share Buybacks but Continues Growth Strategy Amid Low Prices
TotalEnergies Financial Adjustments and Future Plans
By America Hernandez
Impact of Low Oil Prices
PARIS, Feb 11 (Reuters) - TotalEnergies will halve share buybacks in the first quarter but is committed to growing its oil and gas reserves, it said on Wednesday, as low oil and gas prices negated soaring fourth-quarter profit from refining fuels and proceeds from renewable assets stake sales.
Future Oil and Gas Projects
The French oil major's fourth-quarter adjusted net income fell to $3.8 billion (3.2 billion euros) from $4.4 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected $3.9 billion, according to a consensus compiled by LSEG.
Refining and Chemicals Performance
Adjusted net income for the full year dropped 15% to $15.6 billion, despite a 4% boost in annual hydrocarbon production to 2.53 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Total sold more volumes to blunt the blow of falling oil prices. Brent crude averaged $68 per barrel in 2025, down from nearly $80 the previous year.
Total will reduce its first-quarter buyback to $750 million worth of shares, echoing similar moves by peers BP, which completely suspended buybacks, and Equinor's 70% reduction.
"We agreed to start at $750 million, the lower tranche of the buyback range we guided in September. That way we can adjust upward if market conditions favour it," CEO Patrick Pouyanne told journalists on Wednesday.
TotalEnergies' shares were up 1.95% at 1405 GMT.
It had kept buybacks at $2 billion per quarter since mid-2022, when Brent crude prices peaked above $100 per barrel, and repurchased $1.5 billion in shares in the fourth quarter.
Rivals Exxon and Shell have held firm on their buyback programmes.
BETTING BIGGER ON OIL AND GAS
Deputy CFO Arnaud Le Foll said Total's current oil and gas reserves were enough to produce at 2025 levels for 12 years, a figure set to grow via new projects, notably in Libya and Namibia.
"Namibia is the new golden province for Total," Le Foll said.
A final investment decision on the Venus discovery in that country is expected in mid-2026, while FID on the larger Mopane discovery would come in 2028, with additional prospects being explored, he added.
Total ramped up oil and gas production in the fourth quarter to compensate for a 15% drop in Brent crude prices and an 18% drop in liquefied natural gas prices, it said.
Production rose by 5% in the quarter, but income still fell 21.6% to $1.8 billion.
Earnings for the refining and chemicals business, however, surged by 215%, reaching $1 billion.
TotalEnergies has previously said that margins at European refineries during the period jumped 231% compared to the previous year.
The French firm has taken full operational control of the Zeeland refinery in the Netherlands co-owned with Lukoil. That has temporarily allowed Total to boost output of refined fuels and keep the site running at full capacity while the sanctioned Russian company seeks to sell its 45% stake, Pouyanne told journalists.
Pouyanne added that the EU ban on Russian gas imports by end-2027 would allow Europe to absorb rising global LNG supply.
(1 euro = $1.1921)
(Reporting by America Hernandez; Writing by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Dominique Patton; Editing by Joe Bavier and Mark Porter)
