Chevron Has Big 2Q Profits

May 3, 2008 11:30 a.m. EST

San Ramon, CA (AHN) - The second largest U.S. oil company on Friday posted its most profitable first quarter earnings to date, a record $5.17 billion or $2.48 per diluted share.

Chevron's profits stood at $4.72 billion ($2.18 per share) in the same period last year. Revenue increased 40 percent to $64.7 billion.

MarketWatch said the company's oil and gas production showed significant gains even as its refining and marketing results did not perform as expected.

Chevron Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly told MarketWatch that "upstream earnings benefited from a significant increase in the price of crude oil from a year ago. However, market conditions prevented our downstream business from fully recovering these higher costs through the price of gasoline and other refined products."

This simply means that Chevron's saw more than $2 billion in profits for oil and natural gas exploration and production - its upstream business; while incurring losses of nearly $1.4 billion downstream -- in gasoline refining and retail marketing, as well as in its other distilled products.

Marketwatch said the company expects several deep water projects to push through this year, including increased total crude oil production in its shared property in Kazakhstan .