(Reuters) -ConocoPhillips posted a third-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates on Thursday, as the U.S. shale producer benefited from higher output, and raised quarterly dividend by 14%.
Benchmark Brent crude averaged $85.67 a barrel in the first three months of 2023, nearly 13% lower than last year, but still well above the levels that allow oil and gas producers to drill profitably.
Crude prices had surged to multi-year highs last year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended global energy markets.
ConocoPhillips said production for the third quarter was 1.806 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), an increase of 52 thousand (boepd) from the same period a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company reported a profit of $2.16 per share for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $2.08 per share, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
