Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) reported on Thursday a second-quarter net loss, dropping to US$244 million from US$860 million for the same period of 2015, but still falling short of analyst expectations.
Apache - which changed its accounting method from full-cost to successful-efforts in the quarter - posted an adjusted net loss of US$99 million, or US$0.26 per share, compared to earnings per share of US$0.47 for the second quarter last year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate had expected a loss of US$0.21 per share, while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were a bit more optimistic, projecting a loss of US$0.15 per share.
Apache's revenues of US$ 1.382 billion, however, beat estimates -- albeit marginally - with the Zacks consensus having expected US$1.313 billion.
The company cut gross overhead costs by 16 percent in Q2 over the same quarter 2015, and reduced Lease Operating Expense (LOE) per boe by 17 percent.
Apache's total global oil and gas production averaged 535,456 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed), down from 579,827 boed for the second quarter of 2015.
The company said that its output in the North America Onshore was stable at 281,987 boed, down by 16,000 boed from the first quarter of 2016, "despite significant reductions in investment over the last 18 months".
In May 2016, Apache revised up its 2016 full-year production guidance for North American Onshore by 5,000 boed to a range of 268,000-278,000 boed.
In Thursday's second-quarter results statement, Apache said that it was slowly investing incremental capital as crude oil prices had started to show "modest signs of improvement relative to the first quarter". The group now expects its capital expenditure in 2016 to be at the upper end of the US$1.4 billion-US$1.8 billion guidance range.
Apache's results release comes a week after the supermajors reported losses or slumping profits, blaming low crude prices and weak refining margins. Exxon missed estimates by a wide margin, Chevron swung to a loss, and Shell shocked analysts with a 72-percent plunge in profits, which missed forecasts by more than US$1 billion.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More