Total SA posted fourth-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates as rising oil and gas production, higher gasoline and lubricant sales, and profit from refining helped it weather a slump in crude prices. The company deepened cost and investment cuts.
Adjusted net income fell 26 percent from a year earlier to $2.08 billion, the company based outside Paris said Thursday. That exceeded the average $1.77 billion estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Total reported a net loss of $1.63 billion after writing down the value of assets in Canada and Nigeria, among other projects.
“Upstream production increased by a record 9.4 percent, driven by the startup of nine projects” in 2015, Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said in a statement. “Refining & Chemicals was able to fully benefit from good margins thanks to the high availability of its installations.”
Brazil Energy Insight 
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