Occidental Petroleum reports lower oil and gas prices in Q3
Occidental Petroleum, a U.S.-based oil producer, announced on Wednesday that its oil and natural gas production prices were lower in the third quarter compared with the previous period.
The company reported that the realized prices or the prices it received for its production during the third quarter were about 6% lower in total for its oil output, and 26% lower in its U.S. Natural Gas output.
Concerns about the growth of global oil demand led to a decline in oil prices during the quarter July-September. U.S. Natural Gas prices fell to multi-year lows. Prices in the Waha Hub were also at their lowest levels.
Occidental completed its $12 billion purchase of CrownRock, a privately held company in August. This implies that the company had two months worth of increased production in the third-quarter.
For the third-quarter, Occidental expects its average realized oil price to be $75.33 per barrel and that realized prices for Natural Gas Liquids will be around $20.47 a barrel globally.
The company anticipates that the average price for natural gas in the U.S. in July-September will be around 40 cents per Million Cubic Feet (Mcf), compared to the 54 cents per Mcf in the previous quarter.
Occidental has become the second shale oil producer to announce that the lower oil prices in the third quarter will affect the results.
Exxon Mobil, a larger competitor, warned last week that its upstream earnings for the third quarter could be hit by up to $1 billion because of lower oil prices and margins in refining.
According to estimates compiled LSEG by analysts, Occidental is expected to post an adjusted loss of 85 cents a share in the third quarterly. In the previous quarter, Occidental had reported an adjusted profit per share of $1.03 and in last year's 3rd quarter it was $1.18. Reporting by Vallari Shrivastava from Bengaluru, and Gary McWilliams from Houston; editing by Alan Barona
(source: Reuters)
