French oil company Total said on Tuesday that it expected 2015 profits to be down by more than 20 percent from a year earlier because of falling oil prices.

"Total's profits are resisting because we are not only in oil production, but also in transformation, in refining and in distribution. We're present all along the chain," company chief Patrick Pouyanne told Europe 1 radio. "But at the same time our profits are falling. They will be down a bit more than 20 percent this year (2015) because the oil price fell by 50 percent."