SAN RAMON, United States (AFP) - ChevronTexaco said its third-quarter net profit jumped 60 percent from a year ago to 3.2 billion dollars as the oil giant got a lift from surging crude prices and the sale of some assets.
The profit amounted to 1.51 dollars per share, or 1.38 dollars excluding one-time gains, just a penny better than Wall Street estimates.
The profit included a gain of 486 million dollars, or 23 cents a share, from the sale of "nonstrategic assets," the company said.
Revenues increased 30 percent from a year ago to 39.6 billion dollars.
"Our strong results in the third quarter build on record earnings for our company in the first half of this year," said chairman and chief executive Dave O`Reilly.
"Third-quarter profits in our upstream operations benefited from higher prices for crude oil and natural gas than a year ago, while our downstream businesses outside the United States earned higher margins on increased demand for refined products."
Partially offsetting the gains were lower margins for refined products in the United States and disruptions late in the quarter from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean areas, the executive said.
Over the first nine months of the year, the number two US oil company has earned a profit of 9.9 billion dollars, up from 5.5 billion in the same period of 2003, while revenues are up 22 percent to 109.2 billion dollars.
10/29/2004 - 19:29 GMT - AFP