Occidental Petroleum Posts Profit Amid Cost Cutting
May 05 2016 - 9:40AM
Dow Jones News
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 09:25 ET (13:25 GMT)
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