Total SA, Europe's third-largest oil company, will have a tough time beating this year's performance in 2005 as the dollar weakens to record lows against the euro, Chief Executive Thierry Desmarest said.

"For 2005, it will be hard to do better than 2004," Desmarest said in an interview broadcast on Saturday on Radio Classique's "Questions Orales" programme. The current environment is "very favourable in the price of crude and frankly unfavorable with regards to the dollar," he said.

Total, based in the Paris suburb of La Defense, last month said third-quarter net income rose 39 per cent to 2.37 billion euros (US$3.2 billion) because of record oil prices.

Total reports earnings in euros and conducts business in dollars, so results were hurt by the US currency's 9 per cent drop over the period.

The euro was worth an average of US$1.23 in the quarter, up from US$1.12 a year earlier. It closed on Friday above US$1.34. Brent crude oil traded in London has risen 35 per cent in the past 12 months to US$39.36 a barrel, down from a record US$51.56 on October 26.

"Without necessarily expecting the same result as this year, I think if it dropped to US$25 or US$30 a barrel next year or the following year, we would continue to have an excellent performance," Desmarest said in the interview.

BP Plc and Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe's largest oil companies, report earnings in dollars and posted bigger third-quarter gains than Total. BP's profit jumped 53 per cent to US$3.46 billion and Shell's surged 70 per cent to US$4.41 billion.

Total has no immediate plans to sell its 13 per cent stake in Sanofi-Aventis SA, Desmarest said. A 5-year-old agreement requiring Total and L'Oreal SA, the world's largest cosmetics maker, to keep their holdings expired on December 2.

Shares of Sanofi-Aventis, the world's third-largest drugmaker, have fallen 5 per cent this year, valuing Total's stake at 10.2 billion euros (US$13.57 billion).

(China Daily 12/06/2004 page12)