Occidental Petroleum beats second-quarter profit estimates on higher production

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By Sabrina Valle and Seher Dareen (Reuters) -Occidental Petroleum on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit, in the first results since it closed the $12 billion acquisition of CrownRock last week. The Houston-based oil and gas firm benefited from higher oil production and a rise in crude prices. Its worldwide realized crude oil prices stood at $79.89 per barrel, compared with $73.59 per barrel a year earlier. Shares of the company were up 1.1% in trading after the bell. Occidental's quarterly production stood at 1.26 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), higher than the 1.22 million boepd in the year-ago period and analysts' estimate of 1.24 million boepd. The company posted adjusted profit of $1.03 per share for the quarter ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of 77 cents per share, according to LSEG data. Occidental updated its production target this year to about 1,315 million barrels of oil and gas per day, from about 1.250 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), to incorporate CrownRock's assets. Third quarter production is expected to increase about 140,000 boepd to 1.390 million boepd, it said. The CrownRock acquisition increased Occidental’s long-term debt to about $28 billion. The oil producer kept unaltered its plans to use cash generated through the acquisition and up to $6 billion in asset sales through 2026 to pay down debt. It estimates $970 million in asset sales this year. Occidental reaffirmed its plan to repay $4.5 billion in near-term debt by August 2025. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle and Seher Dareen; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Jonathan Oatis)