As oil prices rise, Suncor Energy's quarterly earnings treble

Earnings for the second quarter of Suncor Energy Inc. surged by more than fourfold on Thursday, as the third-largest crude oil producer in Canada benefited from a jump in commodity prices.

Sanctions on Russia, a major oil producer, have compounded supply problems, resulting in an almost 48 percent spike in global crude prices in the first half of the year as energy companies have struggled to boost output to meet rising fuel demand.

Suncor said that its total upstream production increased from 699,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to 720,200 boepd.

The company's refinery crude throughput climbed by around 20 percent to 389,300 barrels per day, while refinery utilization rose from 70 percent in the third quarter of the previous year to 84 percent in the current quarter.

The company's net income for the three-month period ended on June 30 was C$3.996 billion ($3.11 billion), or C$2.84 per share, compared to C$868 million or 58 Canadian cents a year earlier.