Occidental Petroleum Corp reported a first-quarter loss on writedowns and charges. In response to a historic oil-price crash, the company also cut its budget for the third time since March. The US oil producer has been struggling with debt taken on in a $38 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019.
Amid a glut of oil from a price war and coronavirus-related travel and business restrictions, global energy demand has tumbled. The US crude collapsed in 2020. Despite a recent rally, it remains down about 60 percent from January.
A $670 million loss on interest-rate swaps, a $580 million writedown of oil and gas properties, and a $1.4 billion impairment charge on its Western Midstream pipeline assets are included in Occidental’s results.
From the original roughly $5.3 billion plan, the 2020 project budget slashed by the company for a third time to about $2.5 billion. Compared with a profit of $631 million (84 cents per share) in Q1 2019, a net loss of $2.23 billion, or $2.49 per share, reported by Occidental for Q1 2020.
