LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Thursday that its profit fell by 27 percent in the second quarter as the price of crude and natural gas dropped.
Oil and natural gas companies like Occidental faced tumbling crude oil prices last quarter and natural gas prices that were the lowest in a decade.
Net income was $1.33 billion, or $1.64 per share, for the April-June period. That compares with $1.82 billion, or $2.23 per share, for the same part of 2011. Revenue fell by 6.6 percent in the period to $5.77 billion.
The results still beat Wall Street expectations of $1.60 per share on revenue of $5.48 billion, according to FactSet.
Occidental sold oil for an average of $99.34 per barrel during the quarter, down 3.7 percent from the same part of last year. And natural gas prices dropped by more than half to $2.09 per 1,000 cubic feet.
The company increased oil and gas production by 7.1 percent during the period, and that helped make up for lower prices.
Still, sales at Occidental's oil and gas business fell by 2.1 percent. Sales also dropped at the company's chemical manufacturing business by 11.5 percent, partly because of lower export volumes and prices. Sales at Occidental's pipelines and storage business fell by 40.6 percent.
