TotalEnergies Earnings: Lower Commodity Hurt Results, but Shareholder Returns Continue as Promised

No-moat TotalEnergies' third-quarter adjusted net income fell to $6.5 billion from $9.9 billion in third-quarter 2022 because of lower oil and gas prices and weaker refining margins. The decline in gas prices—major benchmarks were down about 70% from a year ago—in particular weighed on E&P and integrated LNG results and also likely contributed to the latter segment’s weaker trading results compared with the exceptional result a year ago. Integrated power proved to be a bright, albeit still small, spot in the results as earnings continue to grow, more than doubling from a year ago, given growing renewable capacity. Excluding Novatek volumes, oil and gas production increased 5% from the year before to 2,476 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day.