By Arunima Kumar
(Reuters) - U.S. refiner Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) on Tuesday posted a first-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates buoyed by strong refining margins, as demand for fuel and refined products recovered to near pre-pandemic levels amid tight supplies.
Shares of the company rose 3.8% to $92.48.
Global fuel demand has recovered, while Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine have tightened crude oil supplies worldwide.
"Year-over-year, demand trends have been, for the most part, positive and the market seems to have reached a post-COVID point of stability," Chief Executive Officer Michael Hennigan said on a post-earnings call.
The company expects the U.S. refining system running at higher utilization rates in the coming quarters to meet rising demand.
Overall product supplied, a proxy for demand, stood at 19.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in the fourth week of April, near pre-pandemic trends, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
Marathon said its refining and marketing margins jumped nearly 51% to $15.31 per barrel in the quarter ended March 31.
Crude capacity utilization was 91%, resulting in total throughput of 2.8 million bpd, compared with an 83% utilization and total throughput of 2.6 million bpd a year earlier.
For the current quarter, it expects throughput of 2.9 million bpd.
The refining and marketing segment's profit from operations stood at $768 million, compared with a loss of $598 million last year.
The Findlay, Ohio-based refiner said net profit came in at $845 million, or $1.49 per share, for the reported quarter, compared with a loss of $242 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts were expecting a profit of $1.11 per share, according to Refintiv IBES.
Marathon's results followed strong earnings from other energy companies, including Valero Energy Corp (NYSE:VLO) and Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX).