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Aug 3 (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Noble Energy Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as higher production helped offset the impact of a slump in crude prices.
Noble said on Monday that its total sales volumes rose 3 percent to 299,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in the second quarter.
The company also raised its sales volume forecast for 2015 to 305,000-320,000 boepd from 300,000-315,000 boepd.
Noble and some other oil and gas companies have used the over 50 percent fall in crude prices in the past year to acquire assets.
The company said in May it would acquire Rosetta Resources Inc for about $2 billion to enter the Eagle Ford Shale and Permian Basin in Texas.
Noble also said in April it would cut about 220 U.S. jobs to slash costs.
The company reported a net loss of $109 million, or 28 cents per share, for the quarter ended June 30 compared with a profit of $192 million, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier, as it recorded a derivatives loss of $274 million.
Excluding items, Noble earned 26 cents per share.
Total revenue fell 47 percent to $730 million.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 6 cents per share and revenue of $887.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The Houston-based company's shares closed at $35.23 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Up to Friday's close, the stock had nearly halved in value over the past year.
(Reporting by Shubhankar Chakravorty in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Kirti Pandey)