Exxon profit misses expectations on refining, chemical woes

By Ernest Scheyder

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest publicly traded oil producer, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday as weakness in its chemical and refining operations offset a boost from higher crude prices.

It was the second consecutive quarter of weakness in Exxon units that make gasoline, plastics and related products. Exxon blamed weak margins for the income drop in those segments.

Shares of Irving, Texas-based Exxon fell 1.5 percent to $79.64 in premarket trading.

The company posted net income of $4.7 billion, or $1.09 per share, compared to $4.01 billion, or 95 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

By that measure, analysts expected earnings of $1.12 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Profit jumped more than 50 percent in the company's upstream division, which pumps oil and natural gas, thanks largely to rising commodity prices.

In the downstream refining unit, though, profit fell 12 percent, and in the chemical unit, profit dropped 14 percent.

Production fell 6 percent to 3.9 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)