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Occidental Petroleum is an oil and gas company that pumps crude oil and natural gas out of the ground and also makes chemicals.
Occidental Petroleum is an oil company. It drills wells, pulls crude oil and natural gas out of the ground, and sells them into the global market. It is one of the biggest producers in the Permian Basin, the huge oil field that stretches across West Texas and New Mexico and has become the busiest drilling region in the United States.
The company has two main parts. The oil and gas side does the exploring, drilling, and pumping. The chemicals side, called OxyChem, makes basic industrial chemicals — most importantly chlorine and caustic soda, which are used to make PVC pipe, water treatment products, and many other things. OxyChem is a quieter business than drilling, but it earns steady cash and doesn't swing wildly with the price of a barrel. There is also a midstream arm that gathers and transports oil and gas, plus a low-carbon unit working on ways to pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What makes Occidental stand out lately is a huge, risky bet. In 2019 it outbid Chevron to buy Anadarko Petroleum for about $55 billion, a deal that loaded the company with debt right before oil prices crashed. To pay that down, Occidental has been selling assets and watching its cash flow closely. It also made an early push into direct air capture — literally vacuuming carbon dioxide out of the sky — through a venture called 1PointFive, with backing from BlackRock and help from Berkshire Hathaway, which owns a large chunk of Occidental's preferred stock and common shares.
The money question is simple: when oil prices are high, Occidental gushes cash, pays its dividend, and chips away at debt. When prices fall, the debt becomes a heavy weight. Its costs and results are tied closely to the price of a barrel, which the company cannot control, and its future depends on whether its big Anadarko gamble and its carbon-capture experiment eventually pay off.
Saved answer · last researched 25 Oct 2026