By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Occidental (NYSE:OXY) stock was trading 2% higher in Wednesday’s premarket as a booming demand and higher crude prices swung the company back to profits in the second quarter when most expected it to make a loss.
Improved crude prices, at their highest since 2018, resulted in better realizations from operations. The company thus nursed the bottom line back to $311 million or 32 cents per share in the June quarter from a loss of $1.69 billion in the same quarter a year ago.
Analysts had estimated a loss of 1 cent per share.
Revenue of $5.96 billion was more than double of last time’s $2.92 billion and came above the analysts’ expectation of $5.84 billion.
The company’s average worldwide realized crude oil prices increased by approximately 15% sequentially to $64.18 per barrel.
Worldwide natural gas prices rose around 7%.
Occidental said its total production from continuing operations rose to 1.2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, 7.7% higher from the first quarter.
Shale producer, Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN), also beat expectations late on Tuesday, posting core earnings of 60 cents per share, beating an estimate of 51 cents per share.
Oil production averaged 291,000 barrels a day in the second quarter, exceeding midpoint guidance by 3,000 barrels a day. The company attributed improved volumes to strong well productivity from the company’s Delaware Basin operations.
Devon also announced a fixed-plus-variable dividend of 49 cents a share. The stock closed 0.4% higher in Tuesday's after-market trading.