Exxon Mobil Profit Up 56 Pct, Stock Off By Deepa Babington NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday said quarterly profit surged 56 percent, driven by soaring oil prices and strong results from refining operations. Despite the stellar results, the company's shares fell a bit in afternoon trade, held down by a weaker oil and gas sector as crude prices slipped. Crude, which shot up 60 percent this year due to fears of supply disruption in countries like Nigeria and Russia coupled with demand from growing economies like China and India, produced a windfall for oil producers. It recently peaked at $55.67 a barrel. By Thursday afternoon it was under $52. Exxon's third-quarter net income jumped to $5.68 billion, or 88 cents a share, compared with $3.65 billion, or 55 cents a share, in the year earlier period. Excluding a $550 million charge related to a lawsuit, the company reported record earnings of $6.23 billion, or 96 cents a share that beat Wall Street forecasts of 87 cents a share. "All in all, it was a solid quarter, it's a good operating environment obviously and they're generating a lot of cash," said Jason Putman, a buy-side energy analyst with Victory Capital Management. "Production growth was up -- North America was down but the international side of the business continues to grow and that's what the focus is really on. The refining side of business was also very strong. Probably came in higher than most analyst expectations." RISING PRODUCTION During the quarter, Exxon also spent $3.01 billion to buy back 65 million shares to offset the dilution from benefit plans and to reduce the number of common shares outstanding. Revenues jumped to $76.38 billion in the quarter from $59.84 billion a year earlier. Earnings from upstream, or exploration and production, operations shot up to $3.93 billion, reflecting record crude oil and natural gas prices in the quarter. Profit at its downstream -- refining and marketing -- operations rose to $1.40 billion as the benefit from higher refining margins and higher refinery throughput outweighed the pinch from weaker marketing margins. In a research note, Credit Suisse First Boston also noted Exxon's "very strong" results with surprisingly good results at its international refining and marketing as well as worldwide chemicals segments. Oil and gas production in the quarter rose 1 percent to 3.91 million barrels of oil equivalent a day from 3.87 million barrels in the year-earlier quarter. Exxon shares were off 10 cents at $48.85 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Quelle "Exxon Mobil Profit Up 56 Pct, Stock Off" : reuters.com Main page for "Exxon Mobil Profit Up 56 Pct, Stock Off"