TotalEnergies (NYSE: TTE) is raising its interim dividend by 6% as first-quarter earnings jumped by 30% from a year earlier, pushed up by the spike in oil prices and very strong oil trading results in the wake of the Iran war.
The French oil and gas supermajor on Wednesday reported an adjusted net income of $5.4 billion for the first quarter, up by 29% from a year earlier and 41% higher compared to the last quarter of 2025. The earnings easily beat the average analyst estimate of $4.98 billion.
Higher oil prices in the latter part of the first quarter and strong trading results bolstered the earnings at TotalEnergies, which joins BP in reporting consensus-beating profits.
The French energy major earlier this month signaled that higher oil and gas prices and volatile energy commodity markets would more than offset production losses from the Middle East and lead to significantly higher upstream and oil and LNG trading profits.
Today, TotalEnergies said its Exploration & Production division delivered an adjusted net operating income of $2.6 billion and cash flow of $4.6 billion, surging by 43% and 26% quarter-to-quarter, respectively, as they reflected the jump in oil prices and the accretive contribution of the new projects.
Annual organic production growth of 4% offset the impact of the Middle East conflict on production.
In the early days of the war, TotalEnergies warned that the conflict had effectively shut in 15% of its global oil and gas output, while the now-offline barrels account for about 10% of the supermajor's upstream cash flow.
TotalEnergies said today its Q1 oil and gas production averaged 2.553 million boe/d, benefiting from the ramp-ups and start-ups of new projects in Brazil and Libya, which offset production losses in the Middle East, averaging 100,000 boe/d over the quarter.
In view of the strong cash flow generation and “supported by the ability of the Company to maintain a strong balance sheet,” TotalEnergies’ board of directors decided to raise the first interim dividend by 5.9%, CEO Patrick Pouyanné said.
“Furthermore, the Board authorized the continuation of share buybacks up to $1.5 billion in the second quarter and confirmed the objective of a payout ratio above 40% over the year,” the executive added.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
