ConocoPhillips said on Thursday that its first-quarter earnings rose 17 percent as soaring oil and natural gas prices outweighed weak profits from gasoline production.

Oil prices have increased nearly sixfold since 2002 on surging demand from emerging economies, supply concerns and the weak dollar.

Net income in the quarter rose to $4.14 billion, or $2.62 a share, from $3.55 billion, or $2.12 a share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue in the quarter rose 33 percent, to $54.88 billion.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned about $2.56 a share. Analysts, on average, had expected it to bring in about $2.41 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Gene Pisasale, who helps manage $12 billion at PNC Capital Advisors, said the company¡¯

s exploration and production results were a ¡°blowout,¡± and made up the difference between the reported results and analyst estimates.

Benchmark oil prices in the United States averaged a record of nearly $98 a barrel during the quarter, up almost 70 percent from a year earlier.

But margins to produce gasoline have plummeted as refiners have struggled to push through the higher crude costs to customers. According to federal data, first-quarter gasoline prices rose only 33 percent year over year, less than half the increase in the price of crude.

Profits from the company¡¯s exploration and production business rose 24 percent, to $2.89 billion, in the quarter. ConocoPhillips said earnings from its refining and marketing business fell nearly 55 percent, to $520 million.

Net income from the company¡¯s 20 percent stake in the Russian oil company Lukoil stake nearly tripled, to $710 million.

Oil and gas production, excluding the Lukoil stake, was down more than 11 percent, to 1.79 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, mostly because of the loss of projects that were taken over by the Venezuelan government.

Shares of ConocoPhillips fell $1.59, or 1.9 percent, to $82.89 on the New York Stock Exchange.