Occidental Petroleum reported second-quarter profits of $1.03 per share, totaling $1 billion, driven by higher production. This result surpassed analyst expectations by 34%.
The company reported oil and gas pretax profits of $1.6 billion for the second quarter, an increase from $1.2 billion in the first quarter. The average realized oil price for the quarter was $79.89 per barrel, 5% higher than the previous quarter, contributing to the financial results.
Oxy produced 1.258 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) during the reporting period, exceeding its guidance by 600,000 boed. Analysts had predicted an output of 1.24 million boed.
The company’s full-year production guidance has been raised to include production from CrownRock assets, bringing the total to 1.315 million barrels per day (bpd). In the third quarter, Occidental expects production to rise significantly, adding 140,000 bpd for a total quarterly average of 1.39 million bpd.
Occidental announced the acquisition of Permian-focused CrownRock at the end of last year. This acquisition will add 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 will 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,” said Oxy’s chief executive, Vicki Hollub, during 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 to conduct asset sales worth $970 million this year and repay $4.5 billion in debt within the next 12 months. Capital spending for this year has been increased by $400 million, bringing the total to $6.9 billion.