Imperial Oil Ltd. made more than $1 billion the final three months of last year — the highest profit the oil giant has ever made — at a time when consumers were paying nearly $1 a litre for its Esso brand of gasoline.

That profit was nearly double the company's earnings in the fourth quarter of 2004, when it made $538 million or $1.53 a share.

Quarterly revenue also jumped, to nearly $7.5 billion from $6.1 billion, as the company benefited from soaring prices for oil and natural gas following Hurricane Katrina and the damage it caused along the Gulf Coast.




Imperial Oil also announced record high profits for all of 2005 — $2.6 billion or $7.59 per share, easily surpassing the previous record, in 2004, of $2.1 billion or $5.74 a share.

Imperial Oil, Canada's largest oil company, attributed the results to higher prices for crude oil, natural gas and Cold Lake bitumen, as well as higher refinery margins.

A strong Canadian dollar, lower volumes at the Syncrude refinery and a decline in the amount of conventional oil available in the ground kept profits from going even higher.

"In 2005, solid operations coupled with a strong price environment resulted in record earnings, allowing more than $2.1 billion to be returned to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends," said Tim Hearn, the company's CEO.

Imperial Oil's share price (TSX:IMO)rose $2.09 to close at $120 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after the numbers were released.