French energy giant Total Q3 profit suffers half decline

PARIS, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- French energy giant Total announced Wednesday that its July-September net income declined 54 percent from a year earlier, standing at around 1.87 billion euros (2.78 US dollars).

The group's sales of 33.6 billion euros gained a little from the second quarter's level of 31.4 billion euros, however, on a year-on-year basis, it dropped 31 percent from 48.8 billion euros revenue.

Total saw a whole net income of 5.7 billion euros in the first nine months of 2009, down 48 percent compared with the same period of last year, when the group harvested over 11 billion euros.

Sharp drop of oil price in third quarter 2009 largely affected the company's market operation. The Brent oil price fell to 68.1 dollar per barrel, a decrease of 41 percent compared to the third quarter 2008, Total said in its statement.

Struggling in sharp decline in demand and the consequent oversupply, Total confirmed the resilience sign in the third quarter 2009, calling it " among the best of the peer group."( 1 U.S. dollar= 0.67 euros)