(Reuters) - U.S. refiner Phillips 66 posted a better-than-expected profit on Friday as a fall in Canadian crude prices boosted its refining margins, sending its shares up 6 percent in premarket trading.
Phillips 66 has benefited from the U.S. shale revolution that has added millions of barrels of light crude into the supply and a decline in Canadian crude price kept input costs lower.
The refiner's utilization rate, the percentage of the total equipment or refinery involved in processing crude, reached 99 percent.
On an adjusted basis, net income rose to $2.26 billion (1.75 billion pounds), or $4.87 per share, in the quarter, from $548 million, or $1.07 per share, a year earlier.
The Houston, Texas-based company said its realized refining margins rose to $16.53 per barrel in the fourth quarter, from $8.98 per barrel a year earlier.
The company gained $2.74 billion from a change in U.S. tax law a year ago.
Analysts on average were expecting the company to post a profit of $3.01 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
