08:34 AM EDT, 11/01/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Imperial Oil ( IMO ) on Friday said third-quarter profit fell 23% on lower oil prices, even as production from the company's oil-sands properties rose.

The oil producer and refiner, 70% owned by Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) , said it earned $1.24 billion, or $2.23 per share, in the period, down from $1.6 billion, or $2.76, in the year-prior quarter.

Revenue fell 4.8% to $13.26 billion from $13.92 billion.

The company said it produced 442,000 barrels of oil per day from its oil-sands assets in the quarter, up 5.7% from 418,000 barrels per day a year earlier, on higher output from its Cold Lake, Alberta, operations.

Output from the new Grand Rapids solvent-assisted thermal oil sands project averaged 15,000 bpd in the quarter, rising to average 20,000 bpd in September. Total Cold Lake production averaged 147,000 bpd, up from 128,000 bpd a year ago.

The company's share of production from its Kearl oil sands mine averaged 209,000 bpd, matching its year-prior performance.

"Imperial achieved another strong quarter of operating performance across our integrated business. Operating results were driven by the strongest third- quarter upstream production in over 30 years and continued improvement in upstream unit cash costs, as well as achieving strong downstream utilization," chief executive Brad Corson said in a release.

Even as production rose the benchmark Canadian oil price, Western Canada Select, fell 11% to $61.76 per barrel in the quarter from $69.39 a year earlier.

Refinery throughput fell to 389,000 bpd from 416,000 as Imperial carried out maintenance turnarounds at two of its refineries in the quarter.

The company's shares closed up $0.68 to $103.90 Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange