ConocoPhillips Second-Quarter Profit Rises

Profit rose to $4.16 billion, or $2.77 a share Profit rose to $4.16 billion, or $2.77 a share, from $859 million, or dongel 57 cents, a year earlier, Houston-based ConocoPhillips said today in a Business Wire statement. The company said last week that it would record after-tax costs of $1.1 billion to reflect a drop in the value of its Wilhelmshaven refinery, which may be sold or converted to a fuel terminal.

ConocoPhillips and other oil companies benefited as a recovering global economy spurred gains in crude prices. New York oil futures traded 31 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging $78.05 a barrel. The company, which is in the middle of a $10 billion divestiture program, canceled plans to upgrade the Wilhelmshaven plant and this year pulled out of a refining project in Saudi Arabia and an Abu Dhabi natural-gas venture.

“Although you hate to see them take these big write-offs, it’s better than throwing good money after bad to try to save face,” said Philip Weiss, an analyst at Argus Research in New dongel York who has a “buy” rating on ConocoPhillips shares and owns none. “I think that they’re making the right moves.”