Occidental Revenue Falls as Commodity Prices Remain Week

Occidental Petroleum Corp. reported Thursday that revenue fell 32% in the June quarter as the energy exploration and production company continued to be hurt by low commodity prices.

In May, the Houston-based energy company named company insider Vicki Hollub as its next chief executive.

The average quarterly marker prices for WTI and Brent were $57.94 per barrel and $63.50 per barrel, respectively, down from $102.99 per barrel and $109.77 per barrel in the prior-year period.

However, production has continued to increase. In the latest quarter, production grew 13% to 658,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, led by the Permian basin region, where production increased 51%.

Overall, Occidental reported a profit of $176 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with a profit of $1.4 billion, or $1.82 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings were 21 cents, down from $1.38 a year earlier.

Net sales fell to $3.47 billion from $5.13 billion a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 21 cents and revenue of $3.65 billion.

Shares, inactive premarket, have fallen 12% this year through Wednesday's close.

Write to Angela Chen at [e-mail]

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