PARIS: French oil giant Total on Wednesday reported a third quarter net profit plunge of 54 percent on a year earlier to 1.87 billion euros (2.76 billion dollars) because of the slump in oil prices.

The result was slightly better than the 1.84 billion euro profit that had been expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Over the first nine months of 2009, Total profits came to 5.70 billion euros 48 percent down from the profits made in the same time last year.