Total Profit Falls on Lower Oil Prices, Output

French oil firm Total posted a fall in first-quarter profit due to lower oil prices and a drop in oil and gas output, partly offset by a rise in its refining and chemicals business.

Brent crude oil prices have been on a downward trend since February and fell 5% over the first quarter versus the year before. They last traded near $102 a barrel.

Total's oil and gas output was down 2% in the first quarter versus the year before at 2.323 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, mainly because of the shutdown of the Elgin gas field at the end of March last year after a huge gas leak.

Elgin restarted production at the beginning of March this year and has so far reached half of its pre-accident output.

Total is counting on the start-up of its Angolan liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and Kashagan in Kazakhstan to meet its production growth target of 2 to 3% in 2013.

"Total continues to progress with confidence toward achieving its goals," Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said in a statement.

Total's European refining margin was up 29% compared with a year ago, and it said that while it expected outages in some European refineries to hit output in the second quarter, the broader outlook for the sector was improving.

Europe's third-largest oil company after Royal Dutch Shell and BP said net adjusted profit fell 7% year-on-year to €2.9 billion in the quarter to end-March, broadly in line with analysts' forecasts. First-quarter revenue was down 6% to €48.1 billion.

The Paris-based group's results were also hit by a one-off $1.65 billion loss booked last month after it pulled out of the long-delayed oil sands Voyageur Upgrader project in Canada.

As a result, its unadjusted net profit fell 58% to €1.5 billion. Total proposed to pay a dividend of €0.59 per share for the quarter, up 3.5% on a year ago.