Chevron profit beats expectations on cost cuts, asset sales

By Ernest Scheyder

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil producer Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday due to cost cuts, asset sales and rising crude prices .

Like many of its peers, Chevron has benefited from a jump in oil prices after a two-year price downturn that rocked the industry. The company's breadwinner oil and gas division swung to a profit and earnings jumped in the refining division.

Divestitures, though, also boosted results, with sales in Indonesia and elsewhere producing a one-time gain.

Chevron posted net income of $2.68 billion, or $1.41 per share, compared to a loss of $725 million, or 39 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding one-time items, Chevron earned $1.23 per share during the quarter.

By that measure, analysts expected earnings of 86 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Production rose 0.4 percent to 2.67 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, partly to increases in the Permian Basin of West Texas.

Chief Executive John Watson told Reuters earlier this month the Permian was vital to Chevron's growth.

Shares of California-based Chevron rose 2.2 percent to $107.80 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Bernard Or)

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