Malaysia's state oil firm Petronas today posted a near 60 per cent jump in first quarter earnings on recovering demand but warned that the uncertain global economy may curb future profits.

The April-June results confirmed the refining turnaround was broad-based as profits from oil majors like Exxon-Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell have also climbed.

'The healing from this slowdown will take longer than previous recessions,' CEO Shamsul Azhar Abbas told reporters after the company announced its results on a quarterly basis for the first time as part of a corporate transparency exercise.

Net profit for the first quarter rose to RM12.3 billion (US$3.99 billion) from RM7.7 billion, the same period a year ago.

US crude prices were 30 per cent higher in the quarter than a year before, averaging US$78.65 a barrel but trading well below a record high of US$147 hit in July 2008.

Petronas, which manages Malaysia's energy reserves, said the country's total oil and gas output rose 0.3 per cent to 1.59 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the April-June period from a year ago on higher demand.

But the Fortune 100 company's international oil and gas share fell slightly to 1.8 per cent to 279,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day due to expiry of service contracts.

Shamsul said the company had no plans of taking over a stake in Iran's giant Azadegan oilfield project from Japan's top oil explorer Inpex Corp that may pull out to avoid US sanctions.

It said that it no longer had any involvement in the Iranian South Pars project as its contract had expired.

Founded in 1974, Petronas provides almost half of Malaysia's budget revenue via dividends and taxes.

Petronas did not disclose how much it paid the government for the first quarter but said it will maintain a payout of RM30 billion for the current financial year, the same as the previous year.-- Reuters