The company has historic links to Calhoun County, known to most old-timers as Hope Natural Gas Company.

The Richmond, Virginia-based company says higher-than-expected oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has helped with the earnings.

Dominion earned $534 million dollars - or $1.53 a share - in the quarter ending March 31st. That's up from $429 million dollars a year-ago.

In March, Dominion announced plans to sell two natural gas distribution utilities to Pittsburgh-based Equitable Resources for approximately 970 million dollars.

The utilities are Pittsburgh-based Dominion Peoples and Clarksburg, West Virginia-based Dominion Hope, which has about 116,000 customers in West Virginia.

Dominion Chairman and CEO Thomas E. Capps was paid $7.22 million in salary and perks before his recent retirement.