TOTAL

Total S.A, or more commonly known just as Total, is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company that is based in Courbevoie, France.

Total has a rich history that dates back to 1924 when the company was founded by the French President, Raymond Poincaré, just after the first World War.

Total was originally founded as the Compagnie Française des pétroles, or CFP, which translated into English quite literally meant “French Petroleum Company”.

CFP was regarded as a private sector company from the start in view of the listing of its shares on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929.

CFP was regarded as a private sector company from the start in view of the listing of its shares on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1929.

During the 1930s, CFP was heavily engaged in exploration and production in the Middle East with the exploration of oil in Venezuela, Canada, and Africa starting after the second World War, while it pursued energy sources within France.

During the 1950s, Algeria and subsequently the French colony were the two main areas on which CFP focused with Algeria becoming the leading source of oil.

The Total brand of gasoline was introduced as its downstream product in both the African continent and in Europe in 1954 followed by Total Petroleum (North America) Ltd, bought the American refining and marketing assets belonging to Vickers Petroleum at the time

With this 50% purchase, CFP gained refining capacity, transportation and a network consisting of 350 service stations across 20 states.

CFP was renamed to Total CFP in 1985 with the aim of building on the pre-existing gasoline brand followed by another change to the name Total, which it still carries until today, with the Total brand known all around the world.

In following years, Total continued to expand the retail presence it had in North America under numerous brand names and by 1993, Total Petroleum was successfully operating approximately 2,600 retail stores under Vickers, Apco, Road Runner and Total brand names.

All of the North American gasoline and convenience stores were remodelled and rebranded to only use the Total name followed by the sale of the refining and retail operations based in North America to Ultramar Diamond Shamrock.

Total took over Petrofina in Belgium during 1999 and after the merger, it became known as Total Fina followed by the acquisition of Elf Aquitaine.

Following the merger in 2000, the company was named TotalFinaElf, but it was renamed back to Total in 2003 and from this rebranding the logo was unveiled and used worldwide under one brand and logo.

In the same year, there was a gas exploration venture occurring in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Total signed for a 30% stake in this alongside Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco.

By 2010, Total’s staff compliment consisted of over 96,000 employees and operations were spread across over 130 countries.

During an announcement in 2012, Total indicated that it would sell 20% of its stake and operating mandate that it had in its Nigerian offshore project for $2.5 billion to a unit of China Petrochemical Corp.

By acquiring the rights for shale gas in the UK after the purchase of 40% interest in two licences in the Gainsborough Trough area of Northern England, Total became the first major oil and gas firm to acquire such substantial exploration rights.

Today, Total has over 104,000 employees that form its staff compliment.

Lampiris, the third largest supplier of gas and renewable energy, was purchased by Total in a deal of $224 million, attributing to the expansion of its gas and power distribution activities.

The share value of Total amounted to €111,581 million by 2016 and this was subsequently distributed in 2,528,459, 212 shares with the largest shareholder being Blackrock with 5.02% ownership.

During the same year, Total acquired $2.2 billion in both upstream and downstream assets from Petrobras with the deal forming part of Total’s strategic alliance announced in October 2016.

A deal for the development and production of South Pars, which is the largest gas field in the world, was signed by Total for a total amount of $4.8 billion followed by Total acquiring Maersk Oil in mid-2017 for a total of $7.45 billion.

Through this deal, Total had become the second operator in the North Sea and during the same year, Total acquired an interest of 23% in EREN RE following a signed agreement between EREN Renewable energy and Total.

The most recent development was in 2019 when Total signed deals in transferring 30% and 28.33% of its assets respectively to Qatar Petroleum in Namibia’s Block 2913B and Block2912.

Total oversees a high-value, extensive and vast product portfolio consisting of oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas and LNG trading and transporting, chemicals, oil refining, and biomass.

In addition to its already impressive, extensive portfolio of existing products, Total is also a large scale manufacturer of chemicals and it forms part of the seven “Supermajor” oil companies in the world with its businesses covering the oil and gas chain in its entirety.

By 2018, Total had a total asset value of $256.762 billion along with a net income of $11.446 billion and operating income of $17.767 billion.

Apart from this, Total offers its investors a combination of both significant production along with cash flow growth, growing production, and a declining capex.

Despite a history of substantial growth and a significant worldwide reputation, with the emergence and spread of Covid-19 in 2025, Total is not free from the impacts that the pandemic alongside its peers in the energy, oil, and gas industry.

Capital expenditure guidance for 2025 has been lowered by 20% to less than $15 billion from the previous expectation of $18 billion with Total having to take the ongoing decline in commodity prices, especially that of oil, into consideration.

With the unexpected drop in oil prices along with the decline in global demand of such due to the Covid-19 pandemic the impact has taken a substantial toll on oil and energy companies around the world.

Despite the growing concerns pertaining to the continued impact caused by the pandemic, Total has stated that targets are set at generating $800 million in saving during 2025 on operating costs as opposed to the $300 million announced previously.

In addition to this, Total has had to preserve its liquidity position, resulting in the suspension of $2 billion share buyback programs.

Total trades its shares on Euronext Paris under the stock symbol FP, on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FWB) under TOTB, and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under TOT. Total forms part of the CAC 40 component.

Data pertaining to an analysis done on the market performance for the first quarter, which ended in March, indicated an adjusted net operating income from all business segments amounted to $2,300 million with a Group share adjusted net income of $1,781 million.

Cash flow from operations was $1,299 billion and the adjusted full-diluted EPS at $0.66, showing a substantial decrease since that of 2019 which was $1.19 leaving shareholders who buy or sell shares with significantly lower dividends and returns in 2025.

Despite the slide in finances when compared to the final quarter of 2019, Total has seen continued operations and significant highlights during the first quarter of 2025 with numerous acquisitions and further developments.

One of these new developments includes Total’s entry into its first floating offshore wind project, which is based in the UK along with the launch of the largest battery power storage project in Dunkirk specifically dedicated to France’s power grid.

In addition, the first three months of 2025 also marked the significant oil discoveries that were made in Surinam and a new discovery pertaining to condensate gas in the UK North Sea.

Energy

Oil and Gas integrated

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• Can I buy Total shares in South Africa?
  Yes, you can.

• How to buy Total shares
  By simply opening a free account on SA Shares, or by clicking the “Buy this Share” button to get started.

• What is the current share price?
  By clicking on the link provided above, you can view the real-time Total share price on the platform.

• Is Total  a good share to buy?
  No, not at the present time. With the sheer drop in the oil price, Total has taken decisive actions to attempt to preserve its liquidity position and with uncertainty still reigning amidst the pandemic, it is not advisable to invest in Total shares at the current time.

• Can I buy Total CFD through SA Shares?
  Yes, you can.