Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne said on Monday that the company was not in a hurry to “diversify” (sell) high break-even assets such as oil sands.
Pouyanne told analysts during a call that the company would wait until oil prices rise before selling the assets.
“We will see what we will do with this project in the coming years but… my priority is value over volumes and oil sands are among the high breakeven projects in the portfolio,” Pouyanne said.
“I don’t want to lose value, so my view is that we need to wait to have higher prices before we sell the assets, we are not in a hurry,” he added.
Total is in dispute with its Canadian partner Suncor Energy after the French company said it would not provide any more funding for their Fort Hills oil sands project in northern Alberta.