Rising oil prices helped to nearly triple Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s earnings in the first quarter.

The Los Angeles oil company on Thursday reported net income of $1.06 billion ($1.31 per share) compared with $368 million (45 cents) a year earlier. Revenue jumped 55 percent to $4.77 billion.

Analysts had expected per-share earnings of $1.36 on revenue of $4.8 billion.

Occidental said it sold crude for an average of $71.88 a barrel during the quarter, compared with $39.29 a year earlier. Over the past year, the price of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped from less than $33 a barrel in the first quarter of 2009 to more than $80 a barrel in 2010.

Occidental said the better prices led the company to pump more oil, resulting a nearly 5 percent increase in oil and gas production during the quarter to 743,000 barrels per day.

The gains offset an 82 percent drop in operating income in the company’s chemicals division to $30 million, but the company expects the unit to bounce back in the second quarter.

Shares closed up $1.35, or 1.6 percent, to $86.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.