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The market value of Total - which recently posted its firstquarterly oil and gas production rise in three years - has overtaken BP's for the first time since 2011, making the French oil major Europe's No2integrated oil company by market capitalisation after Ango-Dutch group Shell.
By 0941 GMT, Total's market value stood at $130.72 billion, according todata from Thomson Reuters Datastream, its shares rising 0.04 percent, comparedwith $129.94 billion for BP, which was down 0.2 percent. Total stock is up 5.9percent this year, while BP shares rose 3.5 percent year-to-date.
Back in 2000, BP's market capitalisation was double Total's market value.
Total's chief financial officer Patrick de La Chevardiere recently saidcapital expenditures would peak this year, after the group embarked on a largeand costly exploration drive to take advantage of historically high oil prices.
"In my mind, we're coming to the end of a large investment phase. De LaChevardiere is also suggesting that capex is going to peak, that's finally gotthe market and investors interested," says Oswald Clint, head oil analyst atBernstein, in London.
"This stock has been below BP and others because investors thought capexwould go up, volumes would not grow. If you can really get volumes growing andyou get capex dropping then it's very simple," he says.
BP has also been embroiled in a long legal battle over a massive oil spillin the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, and has reported soaring compensation costs lastmonth.
"Of course BP's liabilities and court case saga has been prolonged for thelast couple of years ... so the uncertainty still exists," Clint says.
To see a wrapup of oil companies' second-quarter results, please click
For a graphic on both companies' market cap: http://r.reuters.com/zew42v
Reuters messaging rm://michel.rose.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
rm://alexandre.boksenbaum-granier.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
