Occidental Petroleum's profit slumps on $1.1 billion charge

Occidental Petroleum Corp , the fourth-largest U.S. oil company, reported a 79 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as it wrote down the value of certain gas properties by $1.1 billion.

The company's net profit fell to $336 million, or 45 cents per share, in the fourth quarter from $1.6 billion, or $2.02 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 2 percent to $6.17 billion.

The charges were mainly related to gas assets in the Midcontinent, the company said.

(Reporting by Swetha Gopinath and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)