Occidental Petroleum Company Profile Report: Key Insights & Overview
Occidental Petroleum Company Profile Report: Key Insights & Overview
Occidental Petroleum Corporation
NYSE: OXY
5 Greenway Plaza
Suite 110
Houston, TX 77046-0521
United States
Phone: (713) 215-7000
Website: https://www.oxy.com
Industry Sector: Energy - Oil & Gas E&P
Full Time Employees: 11,973
Annual Revenue: $29.3 Billion
Fortune Rank: #110
CEO: Vicki A. Hollub, President, CEO & Director
What is Occidental Petroleum and what does it do?
Occidental Petroleum Corporation, commonly known as Oxy, is a large international energy company headquartered in Houston, Texas. It primarily explores for, develops, and produces oil and natural gas, with core assets in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa, including major positions in the Permian and DJ basins and the Gulf of Mexico.
Oxy operates through three main segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. Its OxyChem subsidiary manufactures basic chemicals such as chlorine, caustic soda, and PVC that serve as building blocks for plastics, pharmaceuticals, and water treatment products. The midstream and marketing business handles gathering, processing, transporting, storing, and marketing crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and related products to optimize value and ensure reliable flow to markets.
The company also emphasizes low-carbon initiatives, using carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery and developing carbon management and emissions-reduction technologies through its dedicated low-carbon ventures arm referenced on its corporate materials.
What is Occidental doing with its midstream operations?
Occidental’s midstream and marketing operations are focused on providing “flow assurance” and maximizing the value of the company’s oil and gas production rather than simply owning pipeline assets. This segment purchases, gathers, processes, transports, and stores crude oil, natural gas, NGLs, carbon dioxide, and power, then markets these commodities into U.S. and international markets. It operates or contracts for gathering systems, gas plants, co‑generation and storage facilities, and uses marketing derivatives to manage price and logistics risk.
Strategically, Occidental has been streamlining its midstream footprint, including marketing and potential sale of interests in Western Midstream Partners and selected gas‑gathering systems, to reduce debt and recycle capital into core upstream and low‑carbon projects. At the same time, it is tightening commercial relationships with key midstream partners, updating contracts (for example, fixed‑fee structures in the Delaware Basin) to improve cost visibility while ensuring long‑term takeaway for Permian and DJ Basin volumes.
What is the Occidental Petroleum Mission Statement and Business Philosophy?
Occidental Petroleum’s mission is to develop energy resources safely, profitably, and responsibly to maximize value for shareholders and other stakeholders. Its business philosophy centers on operational excellence, strong health, safety and environment (HSE) performance, and disciplined capital allocation, aiming to deliver sustainable returns while maintaining a strong balance sheet. The company emphasizes integrity, results‑driven performance, teamwork, innovation, and HSE as core values guiding daily decisions and long‑term strategy.
Oxy also frames its purpose around improving life on the planet by providing essential energy and chemical products while advancing a lower‑carbon future through carbon capture, utilization, and storage and direct air capture technologies. It seeks to lead its sector in sustainability by targeting net‑zero emissions, aligning reporting and governance with global standards, and embedding environmental stewardship and social responsibility into its culture. Across its businesses, Oxy’s philosophy combines responsible resource development, technological innovation, and stakeholder engagement to create durable, long‑term value.
What are Occidental Petroleum growth strategies for 2026 and beyond?
Occidental Petroleum’s growth strategy for 2026 and beyond is built around capital discipline, portfolio high‑grading, and scaling its low‑carbon platform while maintaining a strong balance sheet. The company is prioritizing high‑return, short‑cycle oil and gas development in the Permian Basin and Rockies, supported by the CrownRock acquisition, to deliver durable free cash flow and long inventory life. It plans modest production growth (flat to low‑single‑digit) while keeping capital spending below prior years, using excess cash to reduce debt and support sustainable dividends and buybacks.
A second pillar is expanding Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, including large‑scale carbon capture and direct air capture projects such as the STRATOS DAC facility and associated hubs, aimed at creating new revenue streams from carbon management services and removal credits. Occidental also targets portfolio optimization and selective asset sales in midstream and non‑core businesses to recycle capital into its most competitive upstream and low‑carbon assets. Together, these strategies are intended to enhance returns, lower leverage, and position Oxy as both a leading producer and a scaled carbon management company.
What does Occidental Petroleum's mergers and acquisitions activity look like over the past 5 years?
Over the past five years, Occidental Petroleum’s mergers and acquisitions activity has focused on reshaping its portfolio toward Permian oil and low‑carbon technologies while funding this with targeted divestitures. The headline upstream move is the approximately 12 billion dollar cash‑and‑stock acquisition of Permian producer CrownRock, announced in 2023 and completed in 2024, adding Midland Basin scale, long‑life inventory, and roughly 170,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production.
On the energy‑transition side, Occidental acquired Canadian direct air capture developer Carbon Engineering for about 1.1 billion dollars and later bought DAC startup Holocene, bolstering its 1PointFive carbon management platform. To de‑lever after these deals, Oxy has executed a series of non‑core asset sales and announced a definitive agreement to sell its OxyChem chemical business to Berkshire Hathaway for 9.7 billion dollars in cash, expected to close in late 2025. Overall, recent M&A reflects a deliberate pivot toward Permian scale and carbon management, funded by monetizing non‑core and legacy assets.
What does the Occidental Petroleum organizational structure look like in 2026?
Occidental Petroleum's organizational structure in 2026 is multi-layered with distinct operating segments reporting to the executive team. Here's a breakdown:
Executive Leadership Team
- Vicki Hollub: President and Chief Executive Officer
- Robert Peterson: Executive Vice President, Essential Chemistry
- Sunil Mathew: Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
- Sylvia Kerrigan: Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
- Other Executive Vice Presidents and SVPs: Leading key functions like Human Resources, Investor Relations, Land, Regulatory, etc.
Who is the current CEO of Occidental Petroleum?
The current CEO of Occidental Petroleum is Vicki A. Hollub, who has led the company as president and chief executive officer since April 2016. She is the first woman to head a major American oil company and has served on Occidental’s board of directors since 2015.
Hollub joined Occidental (via Cities Service) in 1982 and has spent more than 40 years with the company in a wide range of technical and leadership roles across the United States, Russia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. Her previous positions include president of Oxy Oil and Gas, president and COO of Occidental, executive vice president of U.S. operations, and president and general manager of Permian Basin and California operations, giving her deep experience in upstream, midstream, and chemical businesses. She holds a Bachelor of Science in mineral engineering from the University of Alabama, reinforcing her technical grounding in the oil and gas sector.
Who are Occidental Petroleum’ top competitors in the marketplace?
Occidental Petroleum competes with a mix of U.S. independents, integrated majors, and midstream players across its oil, gas, and chemical businesses. In its core U.S. shale and Permian Basin operations, key peers include EOG Resources, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Marathon Oil, Diamondback Energy, and Pioneer Natural Resources, which vie for attractive acreage, capital, and talent. Among the global majors, Chevron and Exxon Mobil are important competitors, particularly in the Permian and Gulf of Mexico.
On the midstream and infrastructure side, Western Midstream Partners, Kinder Morgan, and other pipeline and gathering companies compete or partner with Oxy around transportation, processing, and marketing services. In chemicals, Occidental’s OxyChem segment faces competition from large commodity chemical producers such as Dow and Westlake (noted in peer analyses and industry overviews), which similarly manufacture chlor-alkali and vinyl products. Collectively, these competitors pressure Occidental on costs, capital efficiency, technology, and access to markets across the hydrocarbon value chain.
Who currently sits on the Occidental Petroleum Board of Directors?
Board of Directors
- Vicki Hollub, President & Chief Executive Officer (Director since 2015)
- Avedick B. Poladian, Director since 2008
- Carlos M. Gutierrez, Director since 2009
- William R. Klesse, Director since 2013
- Robert M. Shearer, Director since 2019
- Andrew F. Gould, Director since 2020
- Vicky A. Bailey, Director since 2022
- Claire O'Neill, Director since 2023
- Ken Robinson, Director since 2023
- Jack B. Moore, Independent Chairman since 2022
Who are the executive decision-makers at Occidental Petroleum in 2026?
Vicki A. Hollub – President and Chief Executive Officer.
Sunil Mathew – Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Richard A. Jackson – Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Kenneth Dillon – Senior Vice President and President, International Oil & Gas Operations.
Robert Peterson – Executive Vice President, Essential Chemistry (OxyChem).
Sylvia Kerrigan – Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary.
Jeff F. Simmons – Senior Vice President, Technical & Operations Support and Chief Petrotechnical Officer.
Ioannis (Yanni) A. Charalambous – Chief Information Officer and Vice President.
What Technology Platforms have been deployed at Occidental Petroleum?
Occidental has built a hybrid, cloud‑first tech stack that blends enterprise platforms, industrial analytics, and AI/ML for subsurface and operations. Its core enterprise backbone is SAP S/4HANA Cloud via RISE with SAP, coupled with SAP Signavio, SAP Fiori, SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud for finance, process mining, and reporting.
Oxy has selected Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider and is migrating core production, analytics, and DAC (direct air capture) systems to AWS, using services such as Amazon EC2, EBS, Lake Formation, and advanced analytics and machine learning tools. For upstream analytics and well surveillance, it standardizes on TIBCO Spotfire integrated with Databricks and SQL for large‑scale forecasting over more than 100,000 wells. Its broader stack includes Microsoft BI (SSRS/SSAS/SSIS), SQL Server, MongoDB Atlas for document automation, and various specialized oil and gas applications (e.g., Quorum) and HCM/leave tools like AbsenceSoft. Together, this supports real‑time operations, digital twins, and data‑driven decision‑making across Oxy’s upstream and low‑carbon businesses.
Can I purchase the Occidental Petroleum company profile report?
Yes, you can purchase it from the databahn website by visiting the Occidental Petroleum Company Profile Report page here.
What is included in the Oxy company profile report?
The Oxy company profile report contains more than 45 PowerPoint slides with insights to their corporate growth strategies, investments they're making in their business & technology operations, executive changes, along with comprehensive Org Charts, a Contact Information spreadsheet, a 2024 IT Budgets spreadsheet with detailed line items, and a Technographic profile with more than 1,000 IT Vendors & Products. Collectively, the content in the Oxy company profile represents more than 50 hours of research time.
Can I request customizations to the Occidental company profile report?
Yes, the databahn research team update the report every business quarter and we will do our best to accomodate your requests. If its a more detailed and comprehensive request, there could be additional fees. We will always provide a quote for services before any research work is initiated.
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