OTTAWA: Imperial Oil Ltd, Canada’s No.2 integrated oil company, reported a quarterly profit on Friday, compared with a year-ago loss, helped by higher global crude prices and a C$151 million gain from the sale of a property. Imperial, like other oil producers, gained from a 55 percent jump in global crude prices in the quarter, as an OPEC-led production cut and a rebound in demand slowly erode a global glut. But the company’s production fell in the latest quarter.
Imperial’s gross output averaged 378,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the first quarter, lower than the 421,000 boepd the company produced a year earlier. The Calgary-based company, which is 69.6 percent owned by Exxon Mobil Corp, said net income was C$333 million ($244 million), or 39 Canadian cents per share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of C$101 million, or 12 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Total revenue jumped 37 percent to C$7.16 billion, while the company’s total expenses rose 25.4 percent to C$6.74 billion. Analysts had expected a profit of 40 Canadian cents per share and revenue of C$8.14 billion.
