Imperial Oil profit misses estimate as plunging crude weighs

(Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd , Canada's No.2 integrated oil producer and refiner, reported a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, hurt by a prolonged slump in crude oil prices. Imperial, like most its peers, endured a torrid fourth quarter in which global oil prices continued to slide. Exxon Mobil Corp , which owns 69.6 percent of Imperial, also reported a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday. Imperial said gross production averaged 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, up from 315,000 a year earlier. The company sold its bitumen from oil sands for an average price of C$22.82 per barrel, compared with C$52.37 per barrel a year earlier. Synthetic crude selling prices fell 31.1 percent to an average of C$56.56 per barrel, the company said. Imperial said net income fell to C$102 million ($72.9 million), or 12 Canadian cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from C$671 million, or 79 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of 30 Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The Calgary-based company's revenue fell 22.5 percent to C$6.23 billion. (Reporting by Anet Josline Pinto and Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)