Total joined other big global peers like BP PLC and Chevron Corp.in turning in fourth-quarter losses.
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Mr. Pouyanné said it is impossible to guess the oil price in the short run.
Oil companies’ investment cuts will eventually lead to a reduction of oil production, he added.
The company is trying to make its operations profitable at $45 a barrel, compared with $52 a barrel in 2015.
Adjusted net income fell 26 percent from a year earlier to $2.08 billion, the company based outside Paris said in a statement Thursday.
Chief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere said that with oil at around $30 per barrel it was hard to sell an upstream asset at a reasonable price. Earlier this year, the top rating companies, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and Moody’s Investors Services put hundreds of oil and gas companies on review for potential downgrade, after lowering their 2016 crude oil estimates.
Oil prices have fallen by 70 percent since mid-2014 due to global oversupply and slow economic growth, hitting oil and gas company profits and forcing them to cut costs, reduce capital spending, delay projects and cut jobs.
Total is an integrated oil company, meaning it explores and produces oil while also refining its into products and selling that onto consumers. Operating profit for its gas stations and lubricants more than doubled, while operating profit from refineries and petrochemicals rose 5%.
Falling oil prices have reduced the profitability of oil extraction which impacts drilling activity. Exploration spending alone will drop to $1.5 billion this year from $1.9 billion in 2015, the company said.
The company also reiterated a plan to sell $10 billion of assets in the three years through 2017 including $4 billion in 2016, having already sold $4 billion last year.
“This isn’t a garage sale”, Mr.de la Chevardiere said.
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But he also sounded an upbeat note on the direction of oil prices, saying “I think that the price will be higher at the end of the year 2016 than it is today”.
