AFP Business News

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PARIS (AFP) - French oil giant Total on Wednesday reported a third quarter net profit plunge of 54 percent on a year earlier to 1.87 billion euros (2.76 billion dollars) because of the slump in oil prices.

The result was slightly better than the 1.84 billion euro profit that had been expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Over the first nine months of 2009, Total profits came to 5.70 billion euros -- 48 percent down from the profits made in the same time last year.

"Compared to the first nine months of 2008, the oil environment in the first nine months of 2009 was marked by a 48 percent decrease in the average price of Brent to 57.3 dollars a barrel," Total said in its earnings statement.

Total also said that its oil refineries had reduced production by 10 percent in the third quarter in order to adjust to lower demand.

But the group said its production had still gone up 0.5 percent on a 12-month comparison to 2.243 million barrels per day.

The increase was due to higher output from oil fields in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico as well as new projects in Angola, Norway and Qatar.