By Tess Stynes
Occidental Petroleum Corp. swung to a fourth-quarter loss as
lower commodities prices offset production growth and led to a big
asset write-down.
The company pegged its 2015 capital spending budget at $5.8
billion, down by a third from 2014 levels, the latest in a growing
list of oil-and-gas companies to curb investment plans amid a
recent slump in crude prices
"Although we have a large inventory of opportunities as well as
the financial capacity to spend more capital, we think it is
imprudent to accelerate some of these opportunities in the current
low product price environment, " Chief Executive Stephen I. Chazen
said. "We are focused on reducing our costs, which includes
renegotiating our supplier contracts that are not reflective of
weaker oil prices."
Occidental plans to "focus on our core assets in the Permian
Basin and parts of the Middle East, Mr. Chazen. "We have minimized
our development activities in the Williston Basin, domestic gas
properties, Bahrain, and the Joslyn oil sands project."
Overall, Occidental reported a loss of $3.41 billion, or $4.41 a
share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $1.64 billion, or
$2.04 a share, a year earlier. The latest period included net
charges of about $4 billion related to the sharp decline in oil and
natural-gas liquids prices. Excluding items, per-share earnings
were 72 cents, compared with $1.46 a year earlier. Segment net
sales decreased 15% to $4.31 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of
68 cents and revenue of $4.31 billion.
In December, Occidental completed the spin-off of its California
oil and gas exploration unit into a separate company, now called
California Resources Corp.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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