May 1 (Reuters) - APA Corp missed Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Wednesday as the oil and gas producer weighed down by lower production in the period.
Natural gas producers such as APA, with high exposure to declining natural gas prices, have resorted to curtailing production and reduce spending to offset the price fall.
APA reported total production of 389,157 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) compared with 394,249 boepd in the year-ago quarter.
The company had announced in April that it had already put in place output cuts of about 35 million cubic feet per day of natural gas production during the first quarter after disclosing that it expects oil and gas production to be relatively flat year-over-year.
The Houston-based company recently closed its acquisition of Callon Petroleum, which would strengthen its asset base in the Permian Basin.
Following the deal, the company now plans to invest $2.7 billion in upstream oil and gas and expects to average about 10 rigs for the remainder of the year in the U.S. The company had previously planned to invest $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion in 2024.
"We have increased our expected annual cost synergies from the transaction by 50% to $225 million", said CEO John Christmann.
The company's adjusted profit was 78 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, compared with analysts' average estimate of 94 cents per share, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Saikeerthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
