TotalEnergies halves buybacks as low oil, gas prices weigh on profits

Feb 11 (Reuters) – TotalEnergies will halve share buybacks in the first quarter, 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. 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.

It said it will reduce its first-quarter buyback to $750 million worth of shares, echoing similar moves by peers, 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 2% at 0943 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.

TOTAL TAKES CAUTIOUS APPROACH AMID DEPRESSED PRICES

“We think caution is the right approach,” RBC analysts said in a note, adding that given current prices, there was “upside” to this through the year.

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 from the exploration segment 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 margins at European refineries during the period jumped 231% compared to the previous year.

Pouyanne had attributed that increase to U.S. sanctions on Russia’s Rosneft and Lukoil  and a European Union import ban on fuels derived from Russian oil.

On Wednesday, he said an EU ban on Russian gas imports by the end of 2027 is also supporting LNG demand, with European purchases absorbing the rising global supply so far.

(1 euro = $1.1921)