Chevron Corporation said on Friday that its second quarter earnings saw three-fold increases as the company pointed to improved refining margins and solid market prices for both oil and natural gas as major contributors to the impressive performances.

The oil company revealed incomes of $US5.4 billion or $A6 billion for distribution of $US2.70 per share on the three months leading to end of June as against the $US1.7 billion or $A1.9 billion with distribution of 87 cents per share from the previous corresponding period last year.

Chevron said that that total revenues saw an upturn of 32 percent to $US53 billion or $A58.8 billion which surged past from the earlier projections floated by Wall Street analysts.

The American oil company is the latest in strings of major oil producers to report substantial gains on their second quarter earnings with ExxonMobil Corporation leading the pack by turning in $US7.56 billion or $A8.4 billion in the same quarter while Royal Dutch Shell Group and ConocoPhillips both submitted earnings growth in the April-June period of 15 percent and more than double growth movements respectively.

On the other hand, British Petroleum (BP) continues to languish on its misfortunes as it reported a massive quarterly loss of $US17 billion or $A18.9 billion in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill which also forced the company to reserve $US32.3 billion or $A35.74 billion for repayment claims in the environmental damage absorbed by the Gulf area.

Also, the BP damaged well, which so far spilled some 184 million gallons of oil into the sea, resulted to the temporary closure of US waters to deep-sea oil explorations by US President Barack Obama, further restricting possible growths on the entire oil industry and pushing other companies to scramble for modifications.

Chevron itself was forced to provisionally shut down two operations in the Gulf region with another two deepwater exploration projects set to be delayed by the recent developments as the company added that two of its oil rigs had been idled for some time now while one was loaned for use by BP on its oil spill response in the region.

Company vice-president George Kirkland said that despite the setback on the industry, Chevron would continue on its efforts of exploring oil and gas in the Gulf as he predicts that drilling projects are set to resume later this year once the moratorium has been lifted.

Mr Kirkland conceded though that the company's oil production would suffer a bit due to the current ban imposed on the region with an estimated reduction of 10,000 barrels each day from the overall operation as he clarified that present productions were yet to be affected by the ban and big oil companies should continue raking in billions in profits from existing operations across the globe.

Analysts said that as the world economies recover from the deep recession, worldwide demands for petroleum products would rise with oil prices peaking by 31 percent and natural gas prices increasing by 14 percent which encouraged Chevron to spike up oil and gas production by three percent to 2.04 million barrels each day, in an apparent move to cash in on the improving situation.

Chevron also reported that its downstream business, including the company's refinery operations, collected total earnings of $US975 million or $A1.08 billion in the same quarter, which is an improvement from the $US131 million earnings posted in the same corresponding period last year.