Dow Chemical Co, which agreed this past December to a huge merger of historic proportions with DuPont, reported fourth quarter earnings that were better than had been expected after the company’s plastics business gained due to a drop in the price of oil.

Profit excluding special items ended at 93 cents per share, Dow, which is based in Midland, Michigan, announced on Tuesday. This exceeded the estimate of analysts of 69 cents per share.

Sales were lower ending the quarter at $11.5 billion from $14.3 billion for the same quarter one year ago, but exceeding the estimate of analysts of $11.2 billion.

Shares of Dow were up over 5% prior to regular trading on Wall Street on Tuesday morning.

Profit at the plastics business at Dow, its largest unit, set a record for the fourth quarter as it paid much less for oil that it uses as one of its raw materials.

Andrew Liveris the CEO and Chairman said via a prepared statement that the lower energy prices create a net benefit that will help Dow overcome negative investment sentiment across other sectors.

Costs dropped faster than did prices, said one Wall Street analyst. The demand for polyethylene was much better than had been expected and particularly inside the U.S.

Dow agreed to merge last month with DuPont. The merger is the largest chemical deal in history, combining the two biggest chemical makers in the U.S.

This merger will create three businesses that are focused on the agricultural products, commodity chemicals and specialty materials.

The agricultural business will be the largest in the world surpassing that of Monsanto and Syngenta AG.

Dow announced on December 11 that it would purchase Corning Inc’s share in their silicone joint venture of 72 years known as Dow Corning Inc.

Dan Loeb, who is an activist investor runs Third Point, which is the seventh largest shareholder in Dow, wrote to the board of Dow December 12 asking that Liveris play no role in the new DowDuPoint company.

He has suggested that the deal had been rushed to beat an expiration of a standstill agreement, which prevented Third Point for criticizing publicly Liveris during the year before.

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