Paris – French oil giant Total said Friday that the rising price of crude oil had enabled it to boost profits for the first quarter of 2010 by 14.1 per cent, to 2.61 billion euros (3.46 billion dollars), compared to the same period last year.

Sales for the quarter rose by 25.1 per cent, to 37.6 billion euros, Total said in a statement.

The company said that the good results were largely due to an increase of some 70 per cent in the price of Brent crude over the first quarter of 2009.

‘The first quarter (of) 2010 confirms our return to production growth with an increase of 4.5 per cent compared to the first quarter (of) 2009, one of the best performances among the majors,’ said company head Christophe de Margerie.