Occidental Petroleum


Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States, the Middle East, and Colombia as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the United States, Canada, and Chile. It is organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston. The company is ranked 292nd on the Forbes Global 2000 and 167th on the Fortune 500.
In 2018, the company was the 9th largest petroleum producer in Texas.

History

Oil and gas

The company's oil and gas operations are concentrated in three geographic areas: the United States, the Middle East, and Colombia. As of December 31, 2019, Occidental had of oil equivalent net proved reserves, of which 51% was petroleum, 19% was natural gas liquids, and 30% was natural gas. In 2019, the company had production of per day.

United States

In 2019, the company's United States operations produced per day, representing 69% of the company's worldwide production, including per day in Permian Basin, where Occidental is the largest operator and oil producer. The company produced per day from unconventional oil directional drilling via Permian Resources and per day using a technique called enhanced oil recovery, whereby carbon dioxide and water are injected into underground formations to extract the oil and gas. The company also produced per day in the Denver Basin.

Middle East

The company's oil and gas operations in the Middle East are in Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates and are via production sharing agreements. The region produced per day, representing approximately 24% of 2019 total production. The region also held 28% of the company's proved reserves in 2019.
The company is the largest independent oil producer in Oman. In Qatar, the company is the second-largest oil producer offshore and is a partial owner in the Dolphin Gas Project, which delivers gas to Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Colombia

In Colombia, which accounted for per day of production, or 3% of total production in 2019, the company operates the Caño Limón oilfield.

Chemical

OxyChem manufactures polyvinyl chloride resins, chlorine and sodium hydroxide used in plastics, pharmaceuticals and water treatment chemicals. Other products manufactured by the company include caustic potash, chlorinated organics, sodium silicates, chlorinated cyanuric acid, and calcium chloride. OxyChem has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada and Chile. In a joint venture with Church & Dwight, OxyChem owns Armand Products Company, which sells potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate.

Controversies

Lobbying to do business in Libya

The company began operations in Libya in 1965 and operated there until economic sanctions were imposed in 1986 by the United States. The company was one of the first American companies to resume negotiations in Libya after the sanctions were lifted in 2004. In 2008, the company, along with 5 other oil companies, was criticized for hiring Hogan Lovells to lobby to exempt Libya from a law written by U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg to assist American terror victims in seizing assets of countries found culpable in terror attacks, such as the Libyan bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988. and to remove a provision in the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires disclosure of payments to foreign governments. In early 2011, the company ceased exploration activities and production operations in Libya due to the growing civil unrest in the country and U.S. sanctions. In June 2011, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and United Kingdom prosecutors requested information from the company, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips related to the Libyan Investment Authority, an investment firm controlled by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, to determine if there were any violations of international bribery laws. The Libyan Investment Authority's investments were frozen by the U.S. government in early 2011 following the Gaddafi regime's attacks on Libyan civilians. In 2016, the company ceased operations in Libya.

Environmental record

In 2017, the company was ranked 55th on the Carbon Majors Report, a list of the Top 100 producers and their cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from 1988-2015.
The company has stated that its use of enhanced oil recovery for a portion of its production is one way in which it reduces emissions.

Cleanup of the Copper Basin

In 1982, the company acquired land in the Copper Basin in Tennessee, formerly the site of the Burra Burra Mine, where copper and sulfur had been mined in the 1800s. In 2016, Occidental agreed to spend $50 million to clean up the Copper Basin and restore the water quality of its creeks.

Love Canal

Since the 1920s, several companies and the United States Armed Forces used the Love Canal as a chemical disposal site. In 1942, Hooker Chemical Company began disposing chemical waste at the site and, in 1947, it became the sole owner and user of the land. In 1952, the site was filled to capacity and closed off. The company leased the land to the school board in 1953. Later in the 1950s, the local school board requested that the company sell the land, and threatened to use eminent domain. The school board intended to build a school on an unused area of the dump.
A school was built on the site, and later a middle-class residential district was built on land adjacent to the site. The construction broke through the clay seal containing the waste. In 1968, Hooker Chemical was purchased by Occidental. In 1978, residents became concerned about unusual health issues in the region, including high rates of cancer and birth defects. This subsequently became a national news story, and in 1980, president Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency in the area. Residents were eventually relocated, and the company paid $129 million in restitution.

Oleum spill

On Saturday, October 11, 2008, an accidental spill of oleum, a chemical mixture of sulfuric acid and sulfur trioxide, occurred at a facility in Petrolia, Pennsylvania belonging to Indspec, an affiliate of Occidental Chemical Corporation. The accident caused contamination of the ventilation system and a cloud of toxic gas in the sky and forced the evacuation of over 2,000 residents of the area for the day. The spill was determined to be caused by the use of an auxiliary pump power supply that lacked safety interlocks to prevent tank overfilling.

Colombia

From 1992 to 2001, the company tried to drill for oil in the territory of the U'wa people, in northeast Colombia. The locals resisted, concerned about environmental degradation and fears that development would bring strangers and be a target for guerrilla warfare. There also were tribal beliefs that oil is the "blood of the earth" and should not be removed. In 2002, after years of shareholder resolutions, legal battles, protests, and a failed test well, the company abandoned the project. Repsol took over the project.

Caño Limón

On December 13, 1998, 17 civilians, including 7 children, were killed when the Colombian Air Force dropped a cluster bomb in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, Colombia, after AirScan, Occidental's security contractor, misidentified it as a hostile guerrilla target. Groups such as FARC and the National Liberation Army were active in the area. Three employees of AirScan were flying the Skymaster plane from which they provided the Colombian military with the coordinates to drop the bombs. The operation had been planned by the CAF and AirScan at Occidental's complex in Caño Limón. In April 2003, Luis Alberto Galvis Mujica, a witness and survivor of the accident, sued Occidental. The courts ruled that Occidental was not liable for the incident.

Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum

On May 10, 2007, a group of 25 Achuar Peruvians, a group of Indigenous peoples, filed suit against the company, demanding environmental remediation and reparations for environmental degradation allegedly caused by the company between 1971 and 2000, when it drilled in Block 1-AB in Peru. The plaintiffs claimed that the company violated technical standards and environmental law when it dumped a total of of toxic oil by-products, such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic, in drainage basins used by the Achuar people to fish, drink, and bathe. This environmental damage was alleged to have caused premature deaths and birth defects. A 2006 study by the Ministry of Health of Peru, found that all but 2 of the 199 people tested had levels of cadmium in their blood above safe levels.
The Achuar were represented by EarthRights International and the law firm Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP.
On March 3, 2010, EarthRights International argued to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the case should be litigated in Los Angeles, where the company was headquartered. The court agreed with a trial in the United States, overturning the decision of the lower courts, and, in 2013, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the company's appeal. In March 2015, the company made a settlement for an undisclosed amount, with the funds to be used for health, education, and nutrition projects in 5 Achuar communities in the Corrientes River basin.

[Anadarko Petroleum]

In 2019, Occidental Petroleum acquired Anadarko Petroleum inheriting a significant legacy of environmental infractions including the largest environmental contamination settlement in American history, involvement with the Deepwater Horizon BP disaster and fines under the Clean Water Act.
The deal was clinched as investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett pledged $10 billion to finance the deal in exchange for 100,000 shares of cumulative perpetual preferred stock with a value of $100,000 per share. Buffett and Berkshire also received a warrant to purchase up to 80 million more shares at an exercise price of $62.50 a share.

Political record

Contributions

Occidental has disclosed its contributions to political action committees, lobbyists, and trade associations on its website.
In 2005, the company was among 53 entities which contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the Second inauguration of George W. Bush.
The company also donated between $10,000 and $25,000 to the Clinton Foundation.

Gore family

Former CEO Armand Hammer was a long time friend of former U.S. Senator Albert Gore, Sr. and Gore was a member of the board of directors of the company. In 1972, after he lost an election for the United States Senate, Gore became the head of Island Creek Coal Company, an Occidental subsidiary. Much of the company's coal and phosphate production was in Tennessee, the state Gore represented in the Senate, and Gore owned shares in the company. The company liquidated its coal assets in 1993 after Hammer died.
Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore was criticized by environmentalists when he inherited shares in the company after the death of his father in 1998; however, the shares were immediately sold.
In 1998, the U.S. government sold the Elk Hills Oil Field to Occidental for $3.65 billion after an auction process that involved selling the field in segments and offering it to multiple bidders. However, critics cited the Gore family's involvement with the company as evidence of graft.

Safety record

In 1999, OxyChem achieved Star Status under OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs as being among the safest work sites in the U.S.

Piper Alpha

On July 6, 1988, the company's Piper Alpha offshore production platform in the North Sea was destroyed when an out of service gas condensate pump was started with its pressure safety valve removed. The subsequent gas leak, explosion and fire resulted in the deaths of 167 workers in what remains the world's deadliest offshore disaster.

Greenmail

In 1984, billionaire David Murdock owned about 5% of the company and was a member of its board of directors, after the company acquired IBP, Inc., of which Murdock owned 19%. After disagreements between Murdock and then CEO Armand Hammer, the company paid greenmail to buy Murdock's shares at $40.09 each, while the market price was $28.75.