By Austen Hufford

Occidental Petroleum Corp. posted a profit in its latest quarter, helped by a hefty tax benefit, as the company continues to cut costs amid a low-energy-price environment.

Houston-based Occidental, an oil and gas exploration and production company, has been hurt by the sustained tumble in energy prices. Oil and gas cash operating costs fell 23% in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year even as its realized crude oil price fell 39% to $29.42 per barrel.

Still, Occidental hasn't significantly cut back production lately. In the latest quarter, production climbed 11% from a year earlier to 590,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. That is down 1.2% from the prior quarter.

Occidental said it is continuing to reduce its exposure to the Middle East and North Africa region, including in Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen. Production there fell 41%.

Occidental reported a profit of $78 million, or 10 cents a share, compared with a loss of $218 million, or 28 cents a share, a year prior.

The company posted a $203 million income-tax benefit in the latest quarter, compared with $19 million a year earlier, and income from discontinued operations of $438 million, compared with a $3 million loss from discontinued operations in the year-earlier period.

Excluding discontinued operations and other items, Occidental posted a loss of 56 cents a share, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast a loss of 40 cents a share.

Total sales from fell 26% to $2.28 billion with declines across all three of its segments.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2016 09:13 ET (13:13 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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