Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP suffered a smaller loss in the second quarter than it did a year ago and beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts, the company announced Wednesday morning.

The Indianapolis-based owner of oil refineries lost $907,000, or 3 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30. In the same quarter last year, the company lost $26 million, or 79 cents per share.

Calumet experienced investment losses of $13.3 million in the quarter, including on hedging contracts. Excluding those results, the company would have earned more than the 30 cent per-share profit expected by three analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Sales for the quarter surged 16 percent, to $514.7 million, but fell well below analyst predictions of $533.8 million.

"We are pleased with our results for the second quarter considering our Shreveport (Louisiana) refinery was down for an extended turnaround during the entire month of April 2010," said Bill Grube, Calumet's CEO, in a prepared statement. "We continue to focus on increased run rates to meet higher demand for our specialty products and to take advantage of higher fuel products margins during the summer months."