Chevron Corp, the second-largest U.S. oil company, reported a three-fold jump in quarterly profit on rising oil output, higher energy prices and buoyant margins at its refineries, topping Wall Street forecasts.

The results follow the strong earnings reports from the world's largest oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc on Thursday.

Chevron's second-quarter net income jumped to $5.4 billion, or $2.70 per share, from $1.75 billion, or 87 cents per share, a year before.

Analysts had been expecting a profit of $2.44 per share, according to the average on Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 32 percent to $53 billion.

The company said it had terminated its three-year $15 billion share repurchase plan that started in September 2007, and put in place an ongoing repurchase plan with no set limits.

Its oil and gas production business reported profit of $4.5 billion, up from $1.66 billion a year ago on both higher volumes and prices.

Global production rose to 2.75 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2.67 million barrels, driven by increases in both natural gas and oil output gains.

Chevron's average sales price for oil and other liquids jumped 34 percent from a year ago to $71 per barrel, while its sales price for natural gas climbed 18 percent to $4.40 per thousand cubic feet.

Like others in the industry, Chevron's profit margins at its refineries rose sharply as consumer demand for products such as gasoline and diesel fuel recovered after two years of slack demand. The company posted a profit of $975 million versus $131 million a year ago for that business.

Shares of Chevron slipped less than 1 percent to $75.50 in premarket trade.

(Reporting by Matt Daily and Braden Reddall in San Francisco, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Chevron