Occidental Petroleum Corp., the U. S. oil producer that bought Citigroup Inc.'s Phibro LLC unit last month, revealed Thursday that its fourth quarter profit rose for the first time in more than a year, as crude prices and output soared.

Los Angeles-based Occidental also reported a 7% rise in its 2009 production to 645,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, claiming a record for the company. The oil and gas producer said it hopes 2010 output to rise 5% to 8%.

Los Angeles-based Occidental revealed that its fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to $938 million, or $1.15 a share, from $443 million, or 55 cents, a year earlier. Excluding such items as costs recorded to mirror a slip in the value of oil and natural-gas assets, per-share profit was $1.30, 5 cents higher than the average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Chief Executive Officer Ray Irani lifted oil output from Texas to Yemen as global demand for petroleum-based fuels soared for the first time since 2007. Production witnessed a rise of 3.4 percent to the equivalent of 644,000 barrels of oil a day. Oil futures in New York jumped 29 percent to a fourth-quarter average of more than $76 a barrel, halting a yearlong slide propelled by the recession.

Gains at the company's midstream and marketing sector were $81 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $170 million in the same period in 2008.