Imperial Oil reported first-quarter profit of $940 million, lower than a year earlier, citing refinery disruptions and reduced throughput.
Imperial Oil’s latest quarter came with a clear message: profits fell, and refinery operations were part of the story.
In its first-quarter results, Imperial Oil Ltd. reported profit of $940 million, down from $1.29 billion in the same quarter last year. On a per-share basis, that translated to $1.94 per diluted share, compared with $2.52 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue also eased, totaling $12.45 billion versus $12.52 billion in the prior-year period. While upstream output was slightly higher, the company’s refining performance took a weaker turn.
The upstream figures showed modest improvement, with production averaging 419,000 gross oil-equivalent barrels per day, up from 418,000 in the first quarter of 2025.
Still, refining activity was less robust. Refinery throughput averaged 384,000 barrels per day, down from 397,000 a year earlier, and capacity utilization came in at 88%, compared with 91%.
This matters because the gap between upstream stability and refining slowdowns is often where quarterly earnings show the pressure most clearly.
Imperial Oil said the lower throughput and utilization were mainly tied to unplanned downtime and a disruption of synthetic crude feedstock related to Syncrude’s coker outage. The company linked these operational issues directly to how much product it could process during the quarter.
Looking at the overall mix, the results suggest that even small shifts in plant reliability can quickly affect totals across revenue and profit. For investors, that balance between production levels and refining uptime may be the key factor to watch next.
As this quarter shows, operational disruptions can quickly ripple through the financials, even when production holds steady.