Occidental Petroleum (OXY): What This Company Actually Does

How Occidental makes money

Occidental pulls crude oil and natural gas out of the ground in the Permian Basin (Texas/New Mexico) and Middle Eastern fields (Oman, UAE, Algeria, Qatar), moves it through midstream pipelines and processing, and sells it to refiners and traders at whatever the market price is that day — with no hedges in place as of year-end 2025. In January 2026, Occidental sold its chemicals division (OxyChem) to Berkshire Hathaway for $9.7 billion, making it, for practical purposes, a pure oil-and-gas company for the first time.

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.3, 6-7, 36.

Where the revenue comes from

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.36 (2025 segment revenue); 10-K FY2024, p.111 (chemicals revenue, pre-sale).

Geographically (oil-and-gas revenue, 2025): the U.S. is 85.6%, with international (mostly Middle East) at 14.4%. That international share is small but exposed to political instability, nationalization, and production-sharing-contract renegotiation risk.

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.38 (revenue by geography, oil/NGL/gas).

Customers and competitors

Oil and gas aren't sold to specific large customers — they go to refiners and traders at public market prices (WTI, Brent, NYMEX-linked). Customer concentration isn't separately disclosed in the 10-K, which is typical for a commodity business.

• ConocoPhillips — the largest independent E&P company, with broader geographic diversification across the U.S. and internationally than Occidental.
• Diamondback Energy — a pure-play Permian Basin shale producer, seen as having lower debt and higher capital efficiency.
• ExxonMobil — one of the largest Permian producers, but with integrated refining and chemicals that make it less exposed to oil-price swings than Occidental.

Source: web search, Yahoo Finance, 24/7 Wall St. (competitor comparisons).

The metric that matters most in this sector

Revenue and profit alone don't show whether an oil company is actually "pumping well." Production volume and realized oil price need to be tracked separately, to tell whether a results change came from the company's own performance or simply from oil prices moving.

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.38; 10-K FY2022, p.42.

Leadership and ownership

Vicki Hollub served as President and CEO from April 2016 until stepping down effective June 1, 2026, an internal-promotion engineer who rose through leadership of the Permian division to CEO. She was succeeded by Richard Jackson, previously COO. There's no founder involvement.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is Occidental's de facto largest shareholder at 32.4% — building its stake since 2011, and now also acquiring OxyChem outright, an unusual arrangement of holding equity in a company while simultaneously buying one of its divisions. CEO Hollub personally holds about 2.1 million shares (including exercisable options and warrants).

Source: DEF 14A 2026, "Security Ownership" tables.

Capital returns

Occidental declared $0.96/share in dividends for 2025, then raised the quarterly rate to $0.26 (+8%) in February 2026 — about $1.04 annualized, yielding roughly 1.8% at the current price. Its dividend-growth history is short: the payout was cut sharply during the 2020 pandemic, so this is only the fifth year of rebuilding a "steady increase" track record.

In 2023, buybacks genuinely reduced share count, but in 2024-2025 debt paydown took priority over repurchases, and shares outstanding actually grew from 899.9 million to 986.0 million over that stretch — the existence of a "$3 billion buyback program" shouldn't be mistaken for active shareholder returns during this period.

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.19, 23, 59 (share counts); 10-K FY2024, p.65; 10-K FY2023, p.69; 10-K FY2022, p.63.

How this company could fail

• Oil price volatility, fully unhedged — average 2025 WTI fell 14% year over year, and as of year-end 2025 Occidental had zero commodity hedges in place. With the chemicals business sold, the cushion that once buffered oil-price swings is gone, making earnings swings larger than before.
• Debt remains heavy — total debt was $22.4 billion at year-end 2025, including $20.6 billion in long-term debt. OxyChem sale proceeds brought that down to about $13.8 billion by March 2026, with a $14.3 billion target — but a drop in oil prices could disrupt this plan.
• Anadarko/Tronox tax litigation — up to $2.3 billion contingent liability — a case pending in U.S. Tax Court could require repaying an $881 million tax refund (with interest, now roughly $2.3 billion) that Anadarko received in 2016. A loss would drain cash all at once.

Source: 10-K FY2025, p.8-9 (Risk Factors), p.22 (debt).

Five-year financials

*2025 revenue and pretax income exclude the chemicals segment (continuing operations basis). FCF = operating cash flow minus capex (calculated). Source: 10-K FY2025 p.36, 58-64; 10-K FY2024 p.64-70, 111; 10-K FY2023 p.69-74; 10-K FY2022 p.62-67.

What we still don't know

• How the market will re-rate Occidental's valuation multiple now that it's a "pure oil-and-gas company" after selling OxyChem isn't determinable from this data alone — it requires checking recent analyst reports.
• The final outcome and timing of the Anadarko/Tronox tax litigation depends on a U.S. Tax Court ruling that hasn't been issued yet.
• Whether the STRATOS direct-air-capture carbon business, expected to start operations in 2026, will actually be commercially viable hasn't yet been proven.