Occidental Petroleum

Vicki Hollub, President and CEO since 2016, leads all major capital-allocation decisions. She orchestrated the $55 billion Anadarko acquisition in 2019 and subsequent asset divestitures to Total SA. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway — holding both $10 billion in preferred equity and over 28% of common shares — exercises significant influence on major strategic moves but has publicly stated it does not seek control (per CNBC, 2023).

Occidental's capital flows into three main channels: Permian Basin oil and gas production, which absorbs the majority of upstream spending; OxyChem, its chemical manufacturing business that converts raw materials into PVC and other vinyls; and the emerging 1PointFive direct-air-capture carbon removal subsidiary. The company also maintains joint venture operations in Colombia with Ecopetrol and divested its African holdings to Total SA to reduce leverage after the Anadarko deal.

Berkshire Hathaway holds two forms of exposure. First, $10 billion in mandatory redeemable preferred stock issued in 2019 paying an 8% annual dividend. Second, a common equity position exceeding 28% of Occidental's shares, accumulated through sustained open-market purchases since early 2022 — one of Buffett's single largest public-equity commitments (per SEC 13F and Form 4 filings, December 2023).

Occidental is pursuing what it calls a 'net-zero oil' model through 1PointFive, its carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration subsidiary. Rather than diversifying into wind or solar generation, the company bets that capturing atmospheric CO2 — sold as credits to companies like Airbus and Chevron — can make its own barrels carbon-neutral over time. The Permian Basin's geology provides the subsurface storage capacity for this bet to work at scale.

Since the 2019 Anadarko acquisition and subsequent Total SA asset sale, Occidental has deliberately exited its African oil and gas positions. The company has not pursued the European renewable-generation market that peers like TotalEnergies and Shell have. Management's public posture is to concentrate operational and financial resources on the U.S. Permian Basin and carbon capture rather than geographic diversification.

The Occidental Petroleum Charitable Foundation functions as the corporate philanthropic vehicle, funding community programs and disaster relief in the Gulf Coast region. Its governance is separate from the investment committee and treasury operations. No endowment assets flow back into company operating capital.

With Berkshire owning over a quarter of Occidental, any activist investor or hostile bidder faces a near-impossible path to a proxy-fight victory or unsolicited takeover. The holding further insulates Vicki Hollub's long-cycle carbon-capture and EOR strategy from quarterly-earnings pressure, functioning as a permanent-capital backstop within a public-company structure — an unusual hybrid in the energy sector.