Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) posted a rare earnings miss on Friday, the only international oil producer to do so last quarter, as production slipped in its African and Canadian operations. Exxon’s results were overshadowed by rival Chevron Corp (CVX.N), which easily exceeded Wall Street’s expectations with a double-digit percentage increase in production. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSa.L), Total SA (TOTF.PA) and Statoil ASA (STL.OL) this week delivered profits that topped expectations also. Chevron for years has downplayed profits to spend heavily on megaprojects in Australia, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. That spending now is boosting Chevron’s profit, whereas Exxon has fewer projects about to come online and many of its older assets require more capital to maintain. While profit rose sharply from a year earlier, the Irving, Texas-based company’s production slipped about 1.0 percent. “Exxon continues to really struggle on getting its output up,” […]