PARIS: French oil giant Total said Friday its first quarter net profit fell by more than half as it booked a huge loss on its withdrawal from a Canadian tar sands project.
At 1.54 billion euros ($2 billion), net profit in the first quarter fell by 58 from the same period the previous year.
At the end of March, Total announced it had pulled out of tar sands project in the northern part of the Canadian province of Alberta, and was booking a loss of 1.65 billion euros.
Total said its adjusted net income, the preferred measure in the industry, fell by 7 percent to 2.9 billion euros in the quarter, mostly due to the price of Brent oil sliding by 5 percent.
Output slid 2 percent to 2.323 million barrels of oil equivalent, with one of the company's North Sea platforms for most of the quarter due to a gas leak.
Adjusted operating profits at Total's exploration and production unit fell 19 percent to 2.5 billion euros, while that of refining rose to 383 million.
Shares in Total fell 1.1 percent to 37.68 euros in early trading in a Paris market down 0.52 percent overall.
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