Houston, Texas - Oil and natural-gas company W&T Offshore Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter profit soared on jumps in oil and natural gas prices.

For the quarter ended March 31, W&T earned $79.8 million, or $1.05 per share, compared with $13 million, or 17 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding unrealized derivative losses, the company posted an adjusted profit of $83.9 million, or $1.10 per share, compared with an adjusted profit of $22.1 million, or 29 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2007.

Revenue rose 45 percent to $356.5 million from $246.5 million in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a profit of 90 cents per share on $316.5 million in revenue.

W&T sold 17.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas during the recent quarter, compared with 20.4 billion cubic feet in the 2007 period. The average price rose to $8.70 per thousand cubic feet from $7.20 per thousand cubic feet.

Sales of oil and natural gas liquids rose to 2.2 million barrels from 2 million barrels. The average price rose to $92.52 per barrel from $51 per barrel in the year-ago period.

On a natural gas equivalent basis, sales fell to 30.8 billion cubic feet of equivalent from 32.1 billion cubic feet of equivalent. The average price jumped to $11.57 per thousand cubic feet of equivalent from $7.67 per thousand cubic feet of equivalent in the 2007 quarter.