PARIS (Reuters/France) – TotalEnergies reported on Thursday that its earnings increased sharply in the third quarter. The French energy company said this as it reaped power price increases and forecasts gas prices will remain high in Europe, Asia, and beyond.

From just $848m last year, the company saw an increase in adjusted net profits to $4.8billion for its third quarter. Core earnings more than doubled to $11.2billion to make this possible.

Predictions of low gas supplies and continued high demand were made by the company. Prices will remain high in Europe, Asia and North America through the first quarter of next year barring an extremely mild winter.

According to the group, it is expanding aggressively into renewable and electricity energy. It estimated that its gas production would be at their highest level since 2020’s second quarter.

The company stated that it will produce between 2.85 to 2.9 million barrels oil equivalent per hour (mboepd), over the three-month period of 2021. This is after the production of 2.814 MBOepd during the third quarter.

TotalEnergies forecasted that its average sale price for liquefied natural gas (LNG) will rise to more than $12 per million British thermo units (MMBtu), up from $9.10 the previous three-months.

Due to rising power prices, the company has confirmed that they will be buying back $1.5billion worth of shares in the third quarter of 2018.