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TotalEnergies, the French oil and gas major, is returning more cash to investors.
Presenting its strategy in New York on Monday, TotalEnergies said its board had approved buybacks worth $2.5 billion (€2.2bn) for the last quarter of 2026 and between $2 billion (€1.7bn) and $2.5 billion (€2.2bn) for the first quarter of 2027.
That compares with $1.5 billion (€1.3bn) authorised for the third quarter of this year.
The board also adopted a policy on Sunday to increase the dividend by more than 5% a year for financial years 2026 to 2030, and confirmed it aims to return at least 40% of cash flow to shareholders.
The bigger buybacks come as TotalEnergies expects its gearing ratio, which measures how much of the company is financed by debt, to fall below 10% by the end of this year, from 13.1% at the end of June.
By Monday afternoon, TotalEnergies’ shares were up roughly 2% from Friday’s close following the announcement.
Riding high oil prices
The payouts come as elevated crude prices are boosting the earnings of oil majors.
Brent averaged $103.8 a barrel in the second quarter, when TotalEnergies posted adjusted net income of $6 billion (€5.2bn).
The company also confirmed it aims to grow energy production, spanning oil, gas and electricity, by 4% a year through 2030, with oil and gas output rising by more than 3% a year on average between 2025 and 2030.
TotalEnergies expects free cash flow in 2030 to be around $10 billion (€8.7bn) higher than in 2025, assuming the same energy prices. That would amount to an increase of more than $4 per share, the firm said.
TotalEnergies said its portfolio of projects in Namibia, Nigeria, Libya, Malaysia, Mozambique and Papua New Guinea, together with its existing reserves, would allow it to maintain oil and gas output at around 3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day through 2035.
It also set an ambition to grow oil and gas production by 2% to 3% a year over the 2030–2035 period, drawing on exploration and discovered resources.
Electricity generation is expected to grow by more than 20% a year to reach 100 to 120 terawatt-hours by 2030.
The Integrated Power division, which includes its renewables and electricity business, should break even on free cash flow this year and turn positive in 2027. Electricity is expected to make up a quarter of the company’s energy mix by 2035.
To support its growth plans, the company expects to make net investments of $14 billion (€12.3bn) to $17 billion (€14.9bn) a year from 2027 to 2032. It also reaffirmed its goal of halving direct and energy-related emissions from its oil and gas activities by 2030 compared with 2015.