Occidental Petroleum Swings to a Loss as Revenue Falls

By Austen Hufford 

Occidental Petroleum Corp. swung to a loss in its latest quarter and revenue fell by more than a quarter as the company continues to deal with low energy prices.

Houston-based Occidental, an oil and gas exploration and production company, has been working to cut costs amid the sustained drop in energy prices. Oil and gas cash operating costs fell 16% in the second quarter compared with the same quarter last year. The price of realized crude oil price fell 27% to $39.66 per barrel from last year, but is up 35% from last quarter.

Occidental hasn't significantly cut back production. In its latest quarter, production fell 0.8% from a year earlier to 653,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.

Occidental said it is continuing to reduce its exposure to some areas in the U.S., Middle East and North Africa regions. Production of these noncore assets 59%.

Occidental reported a loss of $139 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with a profit of $176 million, or 23 cents a share, a year prior.

Total sales from fell 27% to $2.53 billion with double-digit declines across its segments.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of 18 cents per share on revenue of $2.66 billion.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 03, 2016 10:04 ET (14:04 GMT)

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