* Plans savings and spending cuts, no job cuts
* Q4 net profit down 26 percent but beat forecasts
* Took $3.7 billion in one-time charges in Q4
* To pay 0.61 euro per share Q4 dividend in cash, shares (Adds CEO comments to analysts, investors)
By Bate Felix and Karolin Schaps
PARIS/LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - France's Total beat quarterly earnings expectations powered by high productionand refining margins on Thursday but said it plans freshspending cuts and asset sales in response to one of the worstmarket downturns in a decade.
Plunging crude prices have forced energy companies to cutcosts, jobs and spending and delay projects.
Total said it plans savings of $2.4 billion, rising to morethan $3 billion in 2017, and capital spending of around $19billion in 2016, down more than 15 percent from 2015.
Total will also look to sell $4 billion in assets, althoughChief Financial Officer Patrick de La Chevardiere said with oilat $30 per barrel selling upstream assets at a reasonable pricecould be difficult.
"This is not a garage sale," he said. "If we cannot obtain areasonable price, we cannot sell."
Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne told investors inLondon later on Thursday that the divestment plan will focus onnon-core assets such as its pipelines and fertilizer businessesbut not specialty chemicals.
Total forecast production would grow by 4 percent in 2016and said it planned five major start-ups including theLaggan-Tormore gas field in the United Kingdom, which beganproduction earlier this week, and Angola LNG.
Pouyanne told investors that an exploration budget of $1.5billion in 2016 will start delivering results followingdiscoveries in Myanmar and Brazil.
He said the group expected to return to paying dividendswith 100 percent cash with oil at $60 per barrel from 2017 afterproposing to use a scrip dividend scheme to pay shareholdersdividends in 2015 and 2016 in cash and discounted shares.
Total last year boosted upstream production with the startof nine projects. Oil and gas output in the fourth quarter rose5.5 percent to 2.352 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
It also saw high margins in refining and chemicals and astrong performance in its retail and lubricant businesses.
Total fared better than many peers in the quarter as itsextensive downstream business benefited from weak oil prices.
That helped curb a fall in net adjusted income in the lastthree months of 2015. It fell 26 percent to $2.1 billion butbeat forecasts as analysts polled by Reuters had expected aprofit of $1.93 billion.
De La Chevardiere said the cost cutting would involvelimiting the number of contractors used by the firm but notdirect employees.
He also said stubbornly low oil prices mean the sector isbraced for downgrades by debt rating agencies.
"The overall trend for the industry is a negative outlook.Probably most of the industry will be downgraded as they alreadydowngraded Shell," he said, adding that a downgradewould have a very negligible impact on Total's business.
Total's shares were down 3.2 percent at the close onThursday. (Editing Jason Neely and Susanna Twidale)
