Shell said current cost of supply (CCS) net income, which strips out unrealized gains related to rises in the value of inventories, rose 49 percent in first quarter, compared to the same period in 2009, to $4.90 billion.

Higher oil prices were the biggest driver of the gain, but cost reductions and a 6 percent rise in output helped too, and suggested that a turnaround plan Chief Executive Peter Voser launched on taking up his role last year continues to deliver benefits.

“Aided by a rising oil price, restructuring measures have gained traction, costs are being cut, whilst production in Russia and Brazil is being ramped up,” said Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.

Shell’s London-listed “A” shares traded up 3.2 percent at 2,059 pence at 1230 GMT, outperforming a 0.9 percent rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index.

BP PLC, with which Shell vies for the title of Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalization, reported a forecast-beating 135 percent jump in net profits, on a CCS basis, on Tuesday.

On Friday, Italian oil major Eni reported a better-than-predicted 3.6 percent rise in net profits excluding inventory effects and non-operating items. The rise in the euro versus the dollar weighed on Eni’s result.

The recent results suggested US oil majors reporting later this week could also surprise on the upside, said Jason Kenney, oil analyst at ING in Edinburgh.

BP’s strong result in the United States was good news for ExxonMobil, which reports on Thursday, and Shell’s success in Asia could be a good sign for Chevron, which publishes its results on Friday, Kenney said.

After seven years of falling growth, Shell said production of oil and gas rose 6 percent in the quarter compared with the same period in 2009, to 3.59 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.