Global oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) has seen a 45 per cent rise in its first quarter profits following an 18 per cent increase in production at its Mukhaizna oil field in Oman.
Posting its financial results for the first three months of 2011, the company announced a growth in first quarter net profits, from US$1.1bn in 2010 to US$1.6bn for the same period in 2011.
Announcing the results in a report for shareholders, the company's chairman and CEO, Dr Ray Irani, said the profit jump was the result of a four per cent increase in oil and gas production.
He said, "In the first quarter of 2011, the core income of US$1.6bn was 45 per cent higher than the first quarter of 2010. Our oil and gas production for the first quarter of 2011 increased over four per cent, as compared to the first quarter of 2010, to 730,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day."
The company's financials also show that oil and gas segment earnings for the first quarter rose 30 per cent from US$1.9bn in 2010 to US$2.5bn in 2011.
The report added that "volumes increased over four per cent, primarily in domestic gas and NGL production and Middle East/North Africa crude oil volumes," as well as stating that "the Middle East/North Africa increase included new production from Iraq and higher volumes from the Mukhaizna field in Oman."
Oxy's figures revealed that first-quarter production at the company's Mukhaizna field, located at the southern end of Oman's interior, had grown 17.5 per cent from 57,000 barrels per day in 2010 to 67,000 barrels per day in 2011.
© Muscat Daily 2011
