Drop in global oil price hurts profit at French oil company Total
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}French oil company Total SA says its earnings fell in the third quarter due to the falling global price of oil.
Total said Wednesday that its replacement cost profit, a key gauge of earnings for oil companies, slid 2 percent to $3.56 billion in the three months to September from $3.63 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Total's oil and gas production slumped 8 percent in the quarter to 2.122 million barrels a day, which the company blamed on the expiration of a license in the United Arab Emirates and a natural decline of older wells. The company aims to lift daily production to 2.6 million barrels by 2015 with new fields being developed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Crude has fallen $28 in the past four months to around $86 a barrel.