France’s Total said Wednesday it has slashed its 2016 capital expenditure budget by about $2 billion from this year’s level.
In its latest Strategy & Outlook report, the company said it will reduce its 2015 capex spend to between $23 billion and $24 billion, down from a peak of $28 billion in 2013.
The company announced plans in January to cut its 2015 capex budget down to about $23.4 billion from $26 billion in 2014.
Total will also further reduce investment down to between $20 billion to $21 billion in 2016, before returning to a “sustainable level” in the range of $17 billion to $19 billion from 2017 onwards.
The company plans to invest around $500 million in capital expenditure per year to “build profitable businesses in new energies”
Total CFO Patrick de la Chevardiere told Reuters his company is aiming to lower its break-even price during the next two years.
“The break-even price is decreasing sharply. The objective is to by 2017 decrease the break-even price. To cover the existing dividend you need something like a $45/bl assumption by 2019,” de la Chevardiere the news wire.
Total added that organic free cash flow will cover its dividend by 2017 at $60 per barrel.
The company also boosted its operational expenditure reduction target by 50 percent from $2 billion to $3 billion by 2017 to leverage the cost reduction “momentum” it’s gained from its 2014 cost cut program.
“In February 2015, as part of a robust response to lower oil prices, the group reinforced the program to achieve 1.2 B$ savings in 2015. At the end of the first half 2015, 66% of the annual target has already been reached,” Total said.
Total saw production rise 11 percent year on year during the first half of 2015.
Production is planned to grow by an average of 6 to 7 percent per year between 2014 and 2017 and by an average of 5 percent per year between 2014 and 2019.
The main drivers of the company’s production growth include twenty major start-ups, with eight of those projects starting up in 2015, and increasing production efficiency.
