Occidental Petroleum Corp on Tuesday swung to a first quarter loss on writedowns and charges, and the troubled U.S. oil producer cut its budget for the third time since March in response to a historic oil-price crash. The company has been struggling with debt taken on in last year’s $38 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum, an ill-timed bet on rising shale oil prices ahead of a market dive. Occidental’s results included a $1.4 billion impairment charge on its Western Midstream pipeline assets, a $580 million writedown of oil and gas properties and $670 million loss on interest-rate swaps.
