Occidental Petroleum tops quarterly profit estimates on midstream support
Occidental Petroleum surpassed Wall Street's expectations for the fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday as its?midstream?unit helped offset lower crude?oil?prices.
In extended trading, shares of the 'company' rose by nearly 3%.
Occidental realized oil prices dropped to $59.22 a barrel in the fourth-quarter, down from $69.73 a barrel compared to 69.73 if you compare it to 68.73 a barrel. Production rose to 1.48 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboepd), despite Occidental increasing production to 1.48 MMboepd.
Brent crude fell more than 9% in the last quarter due to growing concerns over an oil glut.
The midstream division of the company reported a profit of $204million, up from a loss last year of $123million.
The business was boosted by higher gas margins due to transportation capacity optimization, lower long-haul crude transport costs, and higher sulfur prices at Al Hosn where it runs a joint venture with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
Occidental expects its capital expenditures to range between $5.5 billion and $5.9 million and production to average between 1,42 MMboepd to 1.48 MMboepd by 2026.
In the first quarter, output is expected to range between 1.38 MMboepd - 1.42 MMboepd.
The company also said that it has reduced its debt by $5.8 billion in the last two months, and it hopes to reach a principal debt of $14.3 billion in 2026.
Occidental was saddled with a massive amount of debt following the $55 billion purchase in 2019 of 'Anadarko Petroleum' and the $12 Billion acquisition of 'CrownRock" last year.
As of December 31, the long-term debt of Houston-based company was $20,63 billion.
LSEG data shows that Occidental reported a profit adjusted of 31 cents per share in the three months ending December 31, compared to expectations of 18cents. Reporting by Vallari Srivastava, Bengaluru. Editing by Sriraj Kahluvila and Maju Sam.
(source: Reuters)
