New York, January 26 (FinanceEnquiry.com) - Notwithstanding a drop in production and weak refining profits, ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) posted 66 percent higher fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday mainly due to higher oil prices. Its profit went up from $2.04 billion or $1.39 a share last year to $3.39 billion or $2.56 a share in 2011. Revenue of the Houston-based company went up 17 percent to $62.39 billion. Its refining had a 2.9 percent drop in profits but it was offset by the exploration-and-production profits. 

Earnings of Conoco, excluding gains on asset sales and other items, went up to $2.02 a share from $1.32 a share. Adjusted earnings were better than $1.76 a share as expected by analysts.

Major oil companies had higher earnings in 2011 due to improved energy demand in emerging markets that pushed up oil prices. Conoco, the third-largest U.S. oil company by market value sold a barrel of oil in the fourth quarter at an average price of $96.42, a jump of 22.4 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Conoco had a 7.6 percent decline in production in the fourth quarter to 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day but higher crude prices more than made up for the same. The company said that the production in 2011 was also the equivalent of 1.6 million barrels of oil per day, down 7.6 percent from 2010.