Imperial Oil beats quarterly profit estimates on refining strength

Canada’s integrated oil company Imperial Oil Ltd on Friday posted a quarterly profit that beat analysts’ estimate, as cheap crude prices enhanced margins at its refining division.Imperial, majority owned by Exxon Mobil Corp , said income from its refining unit jumped nearly four-fold to C$1.14 billion ($868.2 million). Canadian crude prices have been hurt by a glut in storage as pipelines have been running at full capacity.

“Imperial has taken a strategic approach to increase downstream earnings with continued efforts to process more price-advantaged crudes,” Chief Executive Officer Rich Kruger said in a statement.

Overall income in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 was C$853 million, or C$1.08 per share, beating analysts’ estimate of C$0.94, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Imperial’s gross production rose to 431,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) for the quarter, from 399,000 boe/d, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)