Total's Profit Shows Limited Impact of Oil Price

PARIS—French oil major Total SA said Wednesday aggressive cost-cutting and an increase in oil output helped offset the fallout from the collapse in the price of oil on its bottom line.

Total said net profit fell 4% to $2.97 billion in the second quarter from the same period a year ago while revenue contracted 29% to $44.72 billion. When adjusted to exclude the effect of inventories and other nonrecurring items, the company's net profit fell to $3.09 billion down from $3.15 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

The adjusted profit data was higher than the $2.75 billion median forecast of eight analysts polled by FactSet.

Profit would have fallen even more if the French major hadn't scrambled to raise output to an average 2.3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in the second quarter, from 2.05 million barrels a day in the same period a year ago, the company said.

Total's strategy for stubbornly low oil prices has been similar to other major energy companies: extract as much oil and gas from current operations while cutting back aggressively on all costs and reducing investment in long-term projects. Along with boosted revenue from units like refineries and petrochemical plants—which do well when prices are low—Total, like other majors, has shown signs of resilience in the face of a historic market collapse.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires