A legal claim was lodged against Total in a London court arising from the 2009 Triton Oil scandal which involved the unauthorised release of fuel/FILE
A legal claim was lodged against Total in a London court arising from the 2009 Triton Oil scandal which involved the unauthorised release of fuel.
The oil marketer which made a loss of Sh71 million in 2011 saw operating expenses go up by 17 percent in 2012 to Sh690 million.
Total has also attributed rise in the expenses to high cost of borrowing and increasing inflation during the year.
“Without this exceptional settlement, the operating expenses were reasonably controlled and increased by less than the rate of inflation,” Total Managing Director Alexis Vovk said.
The firm’s loss was also contributed by a drop in total income by Sh378 million as a result of what it termed as ‘disposal of fewer assets compared the previous year.’
Despite sales costs rising by 15.6 percent, they contributed to the firm’s increase in turnover by 16.1 percent to Sh107 billion from Sh92 billion in 2011.
Last week, Total had issued a profit warning to its shareholders citing the court case.
“The macroeconomic environment has remained fairly stable since the second half of 2012 and is expected to remain so in 2013.The company continues to actively participate in and win contracts to supply the oil industry with refined products,” the optimistic MD said.
