2023-04-27 21:01:09
Despite falling gas and oil prices at the start of 2023, TotalEnergies announced yesterday that it had posted a net profit up 12%, to $5.6 billion, in the first quarter of 2023, while announcing the sale of its Canadian assets. in the oil sands.
Last year, from January to March, the French giant had published a net result of 4.9 billion dollars, however taking into account a large provision, the consequence of a depreciation of 4.1 billion dollars of its assets Russians. This year, its adjusted net quarterly income (excluding non-recurring items), of 6.5 billion dollars, therefore shows a drop of 27% compared to the 8.97 billion of last year.
Alongside its quarterly results, the group yesterday announced the sale of its oil sands operations in Canada to SunCor Energy for $4.1 billion, as part of a strategy to reduce its carbon footprint. This sale, which concerns all the securities of the Canadian subsidiary of the French group, TotalEnergies EP Canada Ltd, should be finalized “before the end of the third quarter of 2023”, specified the group.
The oil sands of western Canada form a vast deposit of crude oil of which Canada is the world’s leading producer. They are made up of sand, water, clay and a type of petroleum called bitumen, which are too heavy and thick to flow freely, resembling molasses, explains the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers website. (CAPP).
This exploitation is criticized by environmental NGOs for its effect on the climate: the processes which make it possible to transform oil sands into fuel release three to five times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil, estimates Friends of the Earth in a sheet devoted to the subject, according to which this activity “results in pollution, the destruction of forests and disturbances of wildlife”.
Since an assessment in June 2022, the Canadian oil sands have been referred to as “stranded assets” by the French oil company, an expression which designates “stranded” or “stranded” assets that have lost their value.
In 2022, the French major recorded the largest profit in its history, 20.5 billion dollars, surfing on the surge in gas and oil prices in the wake of the war in Ukraine, which had revived calls to tax the “super profits” more and to stop the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
After having largely crossed the symbolic bar of 102 dollars in 2022, the barrel of Brent, the benchmark for black gold, has suffered a tumble since the first months of 2023: it was below 80 dollars yesterday.
New redemption of securities
As a result of the fall in prices, the group’s quarterly turnover is down compared to the same period last year, at 62.6 billion dollars (-8.7%). Analysts polled by Factset and Bloomberg were expecting net income of around $6 billion and revenue of between $58.2 billion and $58.6 billion.
In a note, analysts at Oddo BHF nevertheless hailed the results “perfectly in line with expectations” and hailed a “welcome divestment from Canadian assets”. The British NGO Global Witness, for its part, denounced the “tremendous profits” made by the group, “while millions of people are struggling (…) with high energy bills and rising inflation”.
To which the group responded by recalling that it had supported its electricity subscribers in France who had made energy savings this winter: “One million French people have reduced their consumption by an average of 15% and will therefore receive a bonus of an average of 90 euros (which is added to their reduction allowed thanks to the electricity saved). »
“Reinforced” by its good financial results, the group also “confirmed the 7.25% increase in the first interim dividend” for 2023, to 0.74 euros per share, “as well as the buyback until two billion dollars of shares in the second quarter of 2023”.
Source: AFP
Despite falling gas and oil prices at the start of 2023, TotalEnergies announced yesterday that it had posted a net profit up 12%, to $5.6 billion, in the first quarter of 2023, while announcing the sale of its Canadian assets. in the oil sands. Last year, from January to March, the French giant had published a net result of 4.9 billion…
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