(Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp (N:OXY) said on Thursday it expects to take impairment charges of up to $9 billion in the second quarter related to the value of its assets as the oil producer forecast crude price to remain lower for a long period of time.
The company separately said it would buy back up to $1.5 billion worth of senior notes due in 2021 and 2022 as it tries to reduce its debt, which ballooned to $40 billion after an ill-timed acquisition of Permian producer Anadarko last year.
Occidental said it expects preliminary oil and gas production from continuing operations for the second quarter to lean toward the high-end of range of 1.3 million-1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboed).
The Anadarko purchase saddled Occidental with a huge debt and the oil-price crash has cut the value of assets Occidental picked up in the deal, dashing its hopes of selling some of them to pay down the debt.
Last month the beleaguered oil producer had said it was looking at a series of options to shore up its impaired balance sheet, including raising cash or refinancing debt.
