Occidental Petroleum Loss Misses Street Forecast As Output Drops

Nov 1(Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday, as the Houston-based company curtailed production due to the slump in oil prices.

Shares of the company fell more than 3 percent to $70.54 in morning trading after the third-quarter loss was reported.

Like industry peers, Oxy has had to contend with low oil prices in the past two years, cautiously deciding where to invest. The company has also cut costs, like many of its peers, to boost results.

"Our efforts to focus on efficiency and capital discipline are paying off," Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said on a conference call with investors.

Oxy has largely focused spending on the Permian Basin of West Texas, where it already is one of the largest oil producers. On Monday, the company said it had paid $2 billion cash for 35,000 acres (14,164 hectares) in the Permian and stakes in some enhanced oil recovery projects.

Still, those investments do little to boost current results. Oxy's production fell 12 percent to 605,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day during the third quarter.

The company said its average worldwide realized crude oil prices were $41.49 per barrel, down 13.2 percent from a year earlier.

Oxy's quarterly net loss narrowed to $241 million, or 32 cents per share, from $2.61 billion, or $3.42 per share. The year-earlier quarter included a $2.6 billion after-tax charge related to scrapped projects and a sharp decline in oil and gas prices.

Adjusted loss of 15 cents per share was larger than the average analyst estimate of 11 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 15.8 percent to $2.73 billion, but came in above expectations of $2.69 billion.

Oxy said it aims to spend $3.3 billion to $3.8 billion in 2017, up from the planned $3 billion for 2016.

(Reporting by Vishaka George in Bengaluru and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Editing by Ted Kerr and Will Dunham)