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Areva Warns of $5.6 Billion Loss

ENLARGE Delays on the Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power plant in Finland have contributed to Areva’s losses. The power plant was scheduled to come online in 2013. Photo: Associated Press PARIS—Engineering firm Areva SA said it expects its 2014 net loss to widen to about €4.9 billion, or $5.6 billion, from a year earlier, as delays to a reactor project in Finland and low demand for nuclear projects continue to hammer the company. The French firm’s latest profit warning follows three successive years of reported losses stemming from delays to a nuclear reactor project in Finland and a big write-off after a mine acquisition went sour. The company was also hampered by the aftermath of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, when many utilities shelved or delayed plans for nuclear power plant construction. Areva, which is 85%-owned by the French state, on Monday said preliminary financial information shows a full-year net […]

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France’s Total Plans to Cut Jobs, Sell Assets After Big Loss

Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne. ENLARGE Photo: Associated Press PARIS— Total SA plans to eliminate 2,000 jobs by 2017 and sell assets worth $5.5 billion this year as the French oil and gas group adapts its business to a world of sharply lower oil prices. The company, one of Europe’s biggest oil producers, said it would freeze the hiring of new staff at its production, refinery, and petrochemicals operations as part of plans to cut costs by $4 billion this year. Total said its aim is to reduce costs so it can turn a profit with an oil price of $70 a barrel compared with $110 a barrel last year. Crude prices have fallen by more than half to around $50 a barrel since last summer. The announcements came as Total swung to a net loss of $5.66 billion in the three months to end-December from a net profit […]

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Total to sell $5bn of assets as it cuts UK refinery capacity

Total said capacity at the Lindsey refinery in Lincolnshire would be halved France’s Total said on Thursday it would sell $5bn of assets this year and cut capacity at Britain’s Lindsey oil refinery as the European energy group reported billions of dollars in asset writedowns and slashed capital spending. The more than 50 per cent plunge in international oil prices sent adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of last year 17 per cent lower, to $2.8bn, against the same period in 2013. Total’s shares fell 1 per cent in early trading in Paris. The result was at the top end of analysts’ forecasts. However, the company took a $6.5bn impairment charge on its Canadian oil sands business, US shale gas and troubled European refining operations. That charge and other one-off items led to a headline loss of $5.7bn for the quarter, against a profit of $2.2bn the previous […]

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Total to cut capital spending by 10% amid oil price rout

A Total SA petrol station is seen in Paris, France Total , the French oil and gas giant, plans to reduce group-wide capital spending by 10 per cent this year and speed up billions of dollars in asset disposals, under an accelerated cost-cutting plan led by new chief executive Patrick Pouyanné . The move comes as thousands more job cuts were announced in the energy industry on Tuesday, with Baker Hughes , the oilfield services provider being acquired by Halliburton in a $26.8bn deal, saying that it would lay off 7,000 employees. Global crude prices have tumbled nearly 60 per cent since June to trade at less than $49 a barrel, as a result of weaker growth in demand for oil, booming US shale production and Opec’s decision in November not to cut output. In a Financial Times interview, Mr Pouyanné — appointed to the top role at Total […]

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France to rank cars for pollution, wants to phase out diesel fuel

PARIS Nov 28 (Reuters) – France wants to gradually phase out the use of diesel fuel for private passenger transport and will put in place a system to identify the most polluting vehicles, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Friday. Next year, the government will launch a car identification system that will rank vehicles by the amount of pollution they emit, Valls said in a speech. This will make it possible for local authorities to limit city access for the dirtiest cars. "In France, we have long favoured the diesel engine. This was a mistake, and we will progressively undo that, intelligently and pragmatically," Valls said. About 80 percent of French motorists drive diesel-powered cars. Valls said taxation would have to orient citizens towards more ecological choices, notably the 2015 state budget measures to reduce the tax advantage of diesel fuel versus gas. The government has announced it will […]

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France suspends delivery of Mistral warship to Russia

France has been under pressure to cancel its contract with Russia for Mistral war ships French President François Hollande has suspended the delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia “until further notice”, in a toughening of his stance over the controversial arms sale. Mr Hollande, who has been under pressure from western allies to scrap the €1.2bn contract amid escalating tensions with Russia over Ukraine , did not go so far as to cancel the contract, but made its suspension indefinite. “The President of the Republic considers that the situation in the east of Ukraine still does not permit the delivery of the first BPC (helicopter carrying and command vessel),” a statement from Mr Hollande’s office said. More On this story On this topic IN Europe “He has therefore decided that it is appropriate to suspend, until further notice, examination of the request for the […]

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Total New CEO Will Contend With Slump in Production, Oil

Print Back to story The successor to Christophe de Margerie, the outspoken Total SA (FP) boss who died in a Moscow plane crash, will have to contend with a slump in the company’s output and the failure of its exploration strategy. Patrick Pouyanne, currently the company’s refining chief and long-touted as a potential successor, will be nominated as chief executive officer at a board meeting in Paris today, Les Echos reported, without saying where it got the information. The new CEO must see through a round of cost cuts as lower oil prices and weak returns from refining eat into profit at France ’s largest company by sales. De Margerie, killed Oct. 20 when his private jet struck a snowplow on a Moscow runway, had sold older fields and sought to pare investments in new projects as part of a pledge to investors last month to cut $2 billion […]

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Russia Loses Oil Ally in De Margerie After Moscow Crash

Christophe de Margerie’s last act as chief executive officer of Total SA (FP) left no room for doubt about his feelings toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia . In a Moscow speech hours before the plane crash that took his life two days ago, De Margerie said U.S. and European Union sanctions on the country were “unfair and unproductive,” and that he opposed efforts to render it “isolated from the major global economic and political process.” Appearing before a receptive audience that included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and a host of Russian executives, he cited his work as co-chair of a Franco-Russian business body alongside Gennady Timchenko — a commodities billionaire who was one of the first targets of U.S. sanctions. De Margerie’s death removes from the scene a businessman who rarely shied away from geopolitical debates and became one of Russia’s most outspoken allies in its efforts to avoid economic […]

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French Oil Giant Boss Dies in Moscow Executive-Jet Crash

Print Back to story Total (FP) SA’s Christophe de Margerie died when his airplane struck a snowplow on a Moscow runway, ending a career in which he oversaw the biggest expansion of oil reserves at the French energy giant in at least 15 years. The 63-year-old chief executive officer died at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport in the crash that also killed three crew members, Total said in a statement. The driver of the snowplow was drunk, Russia ’s Investigative Committee said today in a statement on its website. During a 40-year career that began in Total’s finance unit, de Margerie oversaw far-flung operations for the French petroleum giant from Indonesia to the Middle East to Kazakhstan . Earlier this year he helped negotiate the Paris-based company’s entry into Russian shale under a Siberian drilling venture with OAO Lukoil; the company also is a partner in the vast Russian gas development […]

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CEO of French Oil Giant Total Dies in Moscow Plane Crash

By David Gauthier-Villars PARIS–French oil company Total SA said Chairman and Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie died Monday in a plane crash at a Russian airport. The French executive, who enjoyed close relations with numerous world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, was 63 years old. Mr. de Margerie and the three crew members on board were killed when their Falcon 50 business jet gathered speed to take off at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport amid low visibility, and ran into a snow-removal truck maneuvering on the runway, according to airport authorities. A Total spokeswoman said Mr. de Margerie was in Moscow to attend a gathering of the Russian government’s foreign investment advisory council. Mr. de Margerie’s sudden death opens a period of uncertainty at Total, one of France’s largest companies, which had no obvious succession plan in place. In May, Total shareholders had approved a resolution increasing the age cap […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple