ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, said yesterday it saw demand continuing to grow in spite of soaring oil prices.

The comments came as Exxon disappointed Wall Street with worse than expected results as the impact of high oil prices hit profit, even though revenues reached a quarterly record.

The oil price slipped back a little yesterday with US crude losing 89 cents to $93.64 a barrel by late afternoon London time after hitting an all-time high of $96.24 earlier in the day.

Henry Hubble, Exxon's vice-president of investor relations, said high prices did not yet appear to be causing a significant slowdown in the growth of demand for oil products, with most of the growth coming in the Asia-Pacific region.

"We are not seeing big declines, we're seeing growth and we're not seeing declines in the rate of growth on a worldwide basis," he said. Exxon said third-quarter net income had fallen 10 per cent year on year to $9.4 billion, or $1.70 per share, on revenue of $102.3 billion, up from $99.6 billion.

Analysts knew high oil prices were squeezing refining and chemicals margins. Exxon, as one of the world's biggest refiners, buys about four million barrels of crude oil per day.

Exploration and production earnings were $6.3 billion, down $194 million, reflecting lower natural gas prices and higher costs, which have been soaring across the industry as companies compete for scarce labour and equipment. Refining and marketing earnings were $2 billion, down $737 million.

Exxon shares were down 1.9 per cent at $90.20 in early trading.