Higher Output Pushes Occidental Petroleum's Q2 Profit Above Expectations

Occidental Petroleum reported second-quarter profits of $1.03 per share for a total of $1 billion thanks to higher production. The result exceeded analyst expectations by 34%.

The company reported oil and gas pretax profits of $1.6 billion for the second quarter of the year, up from $1.2 billion for the first quarter. It also reported an average realized oil price for the quarter of $79.89 per barrel, which was 5% higher than the average realized oil price for the first quarter, contributing to the financial result.

Oxy produced 1.258 million barrels of oil equivalent daily during the reporting period, some 600,000 boed above its guidance figure for the second quarter. Analysts had expected output of 1.24 million barrels of oil equivalent daily.

The company’s full-year production guidance will be quite higher, too, to include production from CrownRock assets, for a total of 1.315 million bpd. In the third quarter of the year, Occidental expects production to rise strongly, by 140,000 bpd for a total quarterly average of 1.39 million bpd.

Occidental announced it would buy Permian-focused CrownRock at the end of last year, adding around 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of high-margin, lower-decline unconventional production in 2024 to Oxy’s portfolio in the shale play. It would also add approximately 1,700 undeveloped locations to the company’s asset portfolio.

“The strength of our operational performance resulted in impressive financial results for the second quarter of 2024,” Oxy’s chief executive Vicki Hollub said at the release of the second-quarter results. “We are excited to continue building on this positive momentum across our deep and diverse asset portfolio with the addition of CrownRock.”

Oxy plans asset sales worth $970 million this year and debt repayments of $4.5 billion within the next 12 months. Capital spending for this year was raised by $400 million to a total of $6.9 billion.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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