Imperial Oil (IMO) has increased its quarterly dividend by nearly 30% after the Calgary-based company reported that its third-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago.

The oil producer said it will now pay a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, up 29.4% from its previous dividend of $0.34 a share.

Imperial Oil added in releasing its Q3 numbers that it will also buyback up to $1.5 billion worth of its own shares moving forward.

Imperial Oil said it can afford the increased dividend payout because its net income totalled $2.03 billion or $3.24 a share for the quarter ended September 30, more than double a profit of $908 million or $1.29 per share in the same quarter of 2021.

Imperial Oil’s Q3 revenue totalled $15.22 billion, up from $10.23 billion in the same period a year ago.

The company added that its upstream production in the latest quarter averaged 430,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day compared with 435,000 in the same quarter of 2021.

In its downstream operations, Imperial Oil said that its quarterly refining averaged 426,000 barrels per day as its capacity utilization rate reached 100% compared with 94% in Q3 2021.

Imperial Oil’s stock is up 56% this year and trading at $73.63 per share.