Canadian oil producer Imperial Oil IMO-T -2.42%decrease posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as lower crude prices offset higher production and stronger refinery-capacity utilization.
Benchmark crude prices fell 3 per cent in 2024 due to economic challenges in China, a sluggish post-pandemic demand recovery and a supply glut worsened by surging oil production by the U.S. and other non-OPEC nations.
The company still raised its quarterly dividend by 20 per cent to 72 cents per share.
Imperial’s upstream production for the October-December quarter was 460,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), compared with 452,000 gross boepd during the same period last year.
Total throughput volumes, or the amount of crude processed, were up nearly 1 per cent at 411,000 barrels per day (bpd). Refinery utilization stood at 95 per cent, compared with 94 per cent last year.
The Calgary-based company said its net income fell to $1.23-billion, or $2.37 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $1.37-billion, or $2.47 per share, last year.
The fall in Imperial’s earnings comes as the Canadian energy sector braces for U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariff on Canadian imports, expected to be issued on Feb. 1.
Canada has been the biggest source of U.S. oil imports for over two decades and supplied more than half of all crude imports into the country in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Imperial Oil is majority owned by U.S. oil and gas major Exxon Mobil, which separately posted a fall in fourth-quarter profit earlier today.
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