July 29 (Reuters) - U.S. oil and gas producer Concho Resources Inc posted a bigger quarterly loss on Wednesday, hurt by a sharp decline in crude prices as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered global demand for the commodity and its refined products.
U.S. crude plunged to a stunning low of -$38 a barrel in April, and remains about 33% lower from January's levels despite a recent rally.
Concho said average realized prices fell 15.1% to $30.57 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe), from a year ago.
Production for the second quarter stood at 319,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), down from 329,000 boepd in the year-ago period.
Shares of the company were down 4.7% in extended trade.
The slump in prices, however, was cushioned by cost cutting measures taken by the company which helped it beat Wall Street estimates.
Concho posted an adjusted profit of $1.13 per share, beating analysts' average estimates of 46 cents per share, according to Refinitiv IBES.
Controllable costs, which includes production expenses, cash general and administrative expenses, fell $7.49 per boe, down 25% from last year.
The Midland-Texas based company's net loss widened to $435 million, or $2.23 per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, from $97 million, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier.
Peer QEP Resources also reported a quarterly loss of $184.4 million, compared with a year ago profit of $48.8 million.
The Denver-Colorado based company reduced its 2020 production outlook to between 28.1 mmboe and 29.6 mmboe (million barrel of oil equivalent) from 31.5 mmboe to 33.7 mmboe. (Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
