ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips report flat profits Two of the largest US oil companies, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, reported earnings and production that were roughly unchanged in the first quarter of the year as they struggled to increase their oil and gas output. Exxon, the largest US company by market capitalisation, reported a 1 per cent rise in post-tax earnings to $9.5bn, thanks to the strength of its downstream refining and chemicals businesses. Conoco, which spun off its downstream operations last year, reported underlying profits from continuing operations down 2 per cent at $1.75bn. Exxon's total oil and gas production fell 1.2 per cent - excluding effects such as quotas imposed by Opec, the producing countries cartel - to the equivalent of 4.4m barrels of oil per day. Conoco's production rose 1.2 per cent, excluding disposals, to 1.56m barrels of oil equivalent per day. Upstream profits for both companies were hit by a fall in prices for oil and for natural gas liquids such as ethane, offset by a rise in the price of natural gas in North America. Earnings from Exxon's upstream operations fell 10 per cent to $7.04bn, but the company was rescued by its US downstream businesses, which have benefited from relatively cheap feedstocks of crude oil and natural gas liquids resulting from the shale boom. Earnings at Exxon's US refineries rose 72 per cent to $1.04bn, while its US chemicals operations increased earnings 74 per cent to $752m. Although its production has been shrinking, Exxon has still been generating very large cash flows. It raised its dividend for the first quarter 21 per cent from the equivalent period in 2012 to 57 cents and also bought back $5bn worth of its shares in the three months to March. The share buybacks meant earnings per share in the first quarter rose 6 per cent to $2.12. Exxon said on Wednesday it was raising its dividend for the second quarter by a further 11 per cent to 63 cents. Conoco has also been buying back its stock, and its underlying earnings per share, excluding complete and planned disposals, rose 3 per cent to $1.42. Ryan Lance, Conoco's chief executive, said he remained committed to the goal of raising production volumes by 3 to 5 per cent per year on average. The company pointed to a strong long-term outlook, thanks in part to recent successes with oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, where Conoco has stakes in the Coronado and Shenandoah prospects. It also has important projects scheduled to come on stream in the last quarter of this year. For 2013 as a whole, however, Conoco's total production is expected to fall to an average of 1.485m to 1.52m barrels of oil equivalent per day from continuing operations, down from 1.527m boe/d on average last year. Exxon's shares fell 1 per cent to $88.40 following the results announcement, while Conoco's were up 0.3 per cent at $58.45.