Chevron profit rises 4 percent, even as production falls

CHEVRON (CVX.NY)shares were trading down 22 cents at $106.00 in pre-market trading.

First-quarter profit rose to $6.47 billion, or $3.27 per share, from $6.21 billion, or $3.09 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose nearly 1 percent to $60.7 billion.

Oil and gas production declined to 2.63 million barrels per day (bpd) on an oil-equivalent basis, from 2.76 million bpd a year before. Average benchmark oil prices rose about 12 percent over the same period.

Factors behind the decline in output included maintenance-related downtime and asset sales, including some mostly natural gas producing interests in Alaska.

Chevron is spending heavily on production growth that will not kick in until 2014, with its 2012 capital budget of $32.7 billion up from $29.1 billion last year.

"New production is coming on as planned, and we continue to see strong customer interest in our Australia LNG projects that underpin our future growth," Chief Executive John Watson said in a statement.

Earnings from oil and gas production increased by 3 percent to $6.17 billion, while the earnings from Chevron's refining and chemicals division rose by 29 percent to $804 million.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Steve Orlofsky)