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Imperial Oil reports Q2 profit of $517 million,

CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd. said Thursday it more than doubled its second-quarter profit compared with a year ago.

CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd. said Thursday it more than doubled its second-quarter profit compared with a year ago.

The energy company said it earned $517 million or 60 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30 compared with a profit of $209 million or 25 cents per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue for the quarter was $6.14 billion, up from $5.3 billion in the second quarter of 2009.

“Earnings increased with stronger crude oil realizations, increased production, lower operating costs and improved downstream margins,” said Bruce March, chairman, president and chief executive of Imperial Oil.

“These factors were partially offset by unfavourable foreign exchange effects of a stronger Canadian dollar.”

Imperial Oil is the lead partner in the long-stagnant Mackenzie Gas Project, which would connect natural gas fields near the coast of the Beaufort Sea in the Northwest Territories to an existing Alberta pipeline system.

The National Energy Board has wrapped up hearings into the $16.2-billion project, and is expected to deliver its final decision this fall. Imperial has said it won’t make a decision to go ahead until 2013, with the 1,220-kilometre pipeline starting up in 2018 at the earliest.

Talks between the Mackenzie partners and Ottawa on a fiscal arrangement are on hold for now after more than a year of negotiations.

Imperial is also a major player in the oilsands with vast cyclic steam operations at Cold Lake in northeastern Alberta and a 25 per cent stake in the Syncrude Canada Ltd. partnership, which runs the largest oilsands mining project in the world.

It is also in the midst of constructing the first phase of its $8-billion Kearl Lake oilsands mine, which could eventually produce up to 300,000 barrels of bitumen a day.

Imperial, 70 per cent owned by Houston-based energy major ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM), also has a chain of Esso-branded fuel stations.

Shares in Imperial were down 20 cents at $40.46 in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.