Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) reported a loss of $139mln, or $0.18 per diluted share as they released their second quarter results of 2016.
Nonetheless, the company still came out ahead on its cash balance of $3.8bn. That cash pile was an increase of nearly $600mln over the first quarter. Occidental's stock was up 1.7% to $74.38 late on Wednesday.
“Total company production for on-going operations increased to 609,000 BOE per day from 590,000 BOE per day in the first quarter,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Vicki Hollub.
“The increase was driven by record production in Abu Dhabi and Oman. We continued to see further operating and capital efficiency gains during the quarter as our ‘Total Spend Per Barrel’ metric improved more than 3% sequentially and 37% year-over-year.”
This progress was largely made on the back of executing capital initiatives and improvements in well productivity. “This should translate into full-year production growth at the high end of our 4 to 6 percent guidance, while staying within this year’s capital budget of $3 billion,” Hollub said.
Their cash position and strong balance sheet gives the company the chance to go after new opportunities, including reinvesting in the business and returning cash to shareholders, she noted. “As announced last month, Oxy’s Board authorized an increase of the company’s dividend to an annual rate of $3.04 per share. The increase reflects our confidence in the company’s financial strength, strong performance and future prospects.”
Headquartered in Houston, Occidental is one of the largest U.S. oil and gas companies and has operations globally, in the U.S., Middle East and Latin America.