Adds details and CEO comments from conference call

By Amanda Stephenson and Pooja Menon

May 2 (Reuters) - Canadian oil company Imperial Oil IMO.TO posted its highest-ever first-quarter earnings on Friday, driven primarily by stronger margins in its refining and fuel sales business.

Imperial's strong results come amid a broader rebound in North American refining margins, as demand for products is resilient and supply remains tight due to global disruptions.

The Calgary, Alberta-based company's petroleum product sales were 455,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, up from 450,000 bpd in the first quarter of 2024. The company said synthetic crude oil average realization rose to C$98.79 per barrel, from C$93.51 per barrel a year earlier.

Imperial, which is majority owned by U.S. oil and gas major Exxon Mobil XOM.N, is seeing no indication of a recessionary slowdown related to broader macroeconomic uncertainty, CEO Brad Corson said.

"We have not seen any material degradation in demand," Corson said on a conference call with analysts, though he acknowledged the global trade environment related to U.S. tariffs policy continues to be volatile.

Imperial's results also reflect what has been an ongoing positive lift for Canadian oil producers from the completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project one year ago. The pipeline expansion boosted Canada's oil export capacity, reducing the price volatility that historically occurred whenever the country's oil producers ran out of pipeline space.

"Improved egress continues to support narrower heavy oil differentials than during the past, especially during the winter months, and this in turn supported our price realizations," Corson said.

Imperial did, however, miss analysts' expectations for upstream production, as extreme cold weather in northern Alberta during the quarter resulted in unplanned downtime at the company's Kearl oil sands facility.

Production averaged 418,000 gross oil-equivalent bpd, compared to 421,000 gross oil-equivalent bpd in the first quarter of 2024.

Imperial's net income rose to C$1.29 billion ($933.23 million), or C$2.52 per share, during the quarter ended March 31, from C$1.2 billion, or C$2.23 per share, a year earlier.

($1 = 1.3823 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Amanda Stephenson in Calgary and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Chris Reese)

((amanda.stephenson@thomsonreuters.com Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com))