(MENAFN- AFP) French oil major Total said Friday that accelerated cost savings and increased production led to better-than-expected earnings in the third quarter.
Total said it would now shave $2.7 billion in costs this year, overshooting its earlier aim of $2.4 billion, and would invest around $18 billion, at the lower end of its target.
Faced with stubbornly low oil and gas prices, the company already announced last month that it would cut annual investment to between $15 and $17 billion from next year.
And it had said it intended to shave $4 billion from operating costs, instead of $3 billion by 2018.
"With the market expected to remain volatile, Total is pursuing its efforts to lower its breakeven," the company said in a statement.
Oil prices have recovered to around $50 a barrel since producers cartel, OPEC, agreed at the end of last month to cap output in a bid to tackle an oversupply that has hammered prices.
Nevertheless, crude prices are still only about half their mid-2014 levels.
Total said its third-quarter results were also boosted by a hike in production due to the launch of new large projects with higher margins.
Describing its quarterly results as "solid", it said adjusted net income, which excludes volatile items such as the effects of oil stocks, fell by 25 percent to $2.1 billion, on sales down 8 percent.
However the figure beat estimates by analysts polled by Bloomberg News who had pencilled in $1.9 billion in adjusted net income.
Net profit, meanwhile, soared 81 percent to $2 billion compared to the third quarter in 2015.
Total will have launched five major projects in 2016, including at the giant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan, all of which will help drive its production more than 4 percent higher over the whole year.
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