HOUSTON—Oil major Chevron Corp. beat market expectations on Friday as profit nudged higher in the first quarter, with earnings from refining compensating for slides in energy prices as well as oil and gas production.
Net profit climbed 5 percent to $6.57 billion or $3.46 per share. Results beat consensus by 4 percent, according to Refinitiv data. The company’s standout business was refining, where higher margins helped income surge more than five-fold to $1.8 billion.
Shares were down 0.5 percent in pre-market trading.
Chevron’s oil and gas production division, on the other hand, saw its net profit tumble 25 percent on big year-over-year declines in prices….