Chevron Corp. reported a 47% surge in...

Chevron Corp. reported a 47% surge in first-quarter earnings from operations a year earlier. Chevron earned $501 million, or $1.54 per share, in this year’s first quarter, contrasted with a year earlier when it lost $301 million, or 88 cents per share, after recording a $641-million charge to adopt a new accounting standard for keeping track of retiree health benefits. Without the charge, the San Francisco-based company’s first-quarter earnings last year would have been $340 million, or 99 cents per share. Revenue for the first quarter of 1993 was $9.8 billion, compared to $9.7 billion a year ago. “The major factor in our earnings gain was the continued reduction in our operating costs, reflecting the success of our cost-cutting and reorganization programs that we began last year,� said Ken Derr, Chevron’s chairman and chief executive.