Occidental Petroleum Posts Third-Quarter Loss

By Austen Hufford 

Occidental Petroleum Corp. on Tuesday reported a quarterly loss on a continued decline in revenue, as the oil-and-gas company deals with low energy prices.

Houston-based Occidental reported a third-quarter loss of $241 million, or 32 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.61 billion, or $3.42 a share, a year prior. Excluding various items, the company posted a quarterly loss of 15 cents a share, compared with a profit of 3 cents a share a year earlier.

Total sales from fell 16% to $2.73 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of 11 cents a share on revenue of $2.69 billion.

Occidental has been working to cut costs amid the sustained drop in energy prices. Oil-and-gas cash operating costs fell 82% in the third quarter from the same quarter last year. The realized crude oil price fell 6.7% to $41.49 a barrel.

Occidental on Monday said it acquired acreage and interests in enhanced oil-recovery assets in the Permian Basin in transactions totaling roughly $2 billion, joining a series of deals in the prolific West Texas drilling field.

Occidental has started to cut back production in the low-energy-price environment. In its latest quarter, production fell 12% from a year earlier to 605,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Shares of Occidental fell 2.5% to $71.07 in morning trading.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 01, 2016 10:50 ET (14:50 GMT)

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