PARIS (Reuters) – TotalEnergies’ earnings rose sharply in third quarter, the French energy group said on Thursday, as it reaped the rewards of surging power prices and predicted gas prices would remain high in Europe and Asia though next spring.
The company’s third-quarter adjusted net profit soared to $4.8 billion, from just $848 million last year, from core earnings than more than doubled to $11.2 billion.
It predicted low supplies and sustained high demand would keep gas prices high in Europe and Asia into the second quarter of next year, barring an exceptionally mild winter.
The group, which is aggressively expanding into electricity and renewable energy, estimated its production of gas and crude oil would reach their highest levels since the second quarter of 2020.
It said it should produce between 2.85 and 2.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboepd) in the last three months of 2021, after it reached 2.814 mboepd in the third quarter.
TotalEnergies also predicted its average sales price for liquefied natural gas (LNG) would further rise to over $12 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in the last quarter, from $9.10 in previous three months.
The company confirmed plans to buy back $1.5 billion worth of shares over the final three months of the year, which it had announced in late September on the back of the high power prices.
(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet, writing by Sarah Morland, editing by Lincoln Feast.)
