UPDATE 1-Western Gas Q3 beats Wall Street

* Q3 earnings $0.30/unit vs est. $0.27/unit * Q3 rev down 36 pct

* Total throughput falls 8 pct

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Western Gas Partners LP (WES.N) reported better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by lower expenses. For the third quarter, net income was $16.7 million, or 30 cents per limited partner unit, lower than $17 million, or 32 cents per limited partner unit, reported last year. Revenue for Western Gas, which gathers and transports natural gas, fell about 36 percent to $61 million.

Analysts on average expected the company to earn 27 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $57.1 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total throughput at the company, a limited partnership formed by Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) to acquire and develop midstream energy assets, averaged 1,209 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d), down 8 percent over last year.

Total operating expenses for the quarter dropped 46 percent to $42.7 million.

Shares of the Houston-based company closed at $18.51 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)