Occidental Petroleum Q4 2021 Earnings Report

Occidental Petroleum EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.48
• Consensus EPS: $1.08
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.40
• One Year Ago EPS: -$0.78

Occidental Petroleum Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $7.91 billion
• Expected Revenue: $7.39 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$521.52 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +136.40%

Occidental Petroleum Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2021
• Date: 2/24/2022
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, February 25, 2022
• Conference Call Time: 10:08AM ET

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) (OXY) is an international energy company engaged primarily in the exploration, production and marketing of oil and natural gas. The company conducts upstream activities to discover and produce hydrocarbons and operates complementary midstream and marketing functions to transport and sell its production. Occidental also owns a chemicals business that manufactures and sells industrial chemicals and related products for a range of end markets.

Occidental’s operations are concentrated in the United States, with a significant presence in the Permian Basin, and it maintains exploration and production activities in several international regions, including parts of the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. The company’s assets span conventional and unconventional reservoirs, and it employs enhanced oil recovery techniques, including the use of carbon dioxide for tertiary recovery, as part of its production portfolio.

Founded in 1920 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Occidental has grown through organic development and strategic acquisitions. A notable milestone in the company’s recent history was the 2019 acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum, which materially expanded Occidental’s position in U.S. onshore production. Vicki Hollub has served as president and chief executive officer since 2016, becoming one of the first women to lead a major U.S. oil and gas company.

In addition to hydrocarbons, Occidental operates a chemicals division and has publicly emphasized investments in carbon management and lower‑carbon solutions, including carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) initiatives. The company’s integrated portfolio—upstream production, midstream activities, chemical manufacturing and carbon management—positions it to participate across multiple segments of the energy value chain.

Occidental Petroleum Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Occidental unveiled a new shareholder return framework increasing the quarterly dividend to $0.13 per share, reactivating a $3 billion share repurchase program, and prioritizing $5 billion of debt reduction to drive net debt below $20 billion.
• Oxy delivered record free cash flow in Q4 and its highest annual free cash flow ever in 2021, while OxyChem reported the strongest earnings in over 30 years and the oil and gas segments set multiple drilling cycle and efficiency records.
• The 2022 capital budget includes approximately $3.2 billion of sustaining capital at a $40 WTI price to maintain production at ~1.155 million boe/d, with flexibility to adjust spending and make mid-cycle investments as commodity prices change.
• Occidental advanced its low carbon initiatives by securing the first U.S. upstream sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, aligning net-zero goals with the Paris 1.5 °C pathway, and setting targets to reduce emissions by 3.7 million metric tons by 2024 and store 25 million metric tons of CO₂ per year by 2032.
• Year-end 2021 proved reserves rose to 3.5 billion boe with a 2.41 replacement ratio, underpinned by a vast inventory of low-breakeven projects across onshore, offshore, and EOR assets.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good afternoon, and welcome to Occidental's fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jeff Alvarez, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Jeff Alvarez, VP of Investor Relations at Occidental Petroleum]

Thank you, Rocco. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in Occidental's fourth quarter 2021 conference call. On the call with us today are Vicki Hollub, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rob Peterson, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Ken Dillon, President, International Oil and Gas Operations, and Richard Jackson, President, Operations, US Onshore Resources and Carbon Management. This afternoon, we will refer to slides available on the Investors section of our website. The presentation includes a cautionary statement on slide 2 regarding forward-looking statements that will be made on the call this afternoon. I'll now turn the call over to Vicki. Vicki, please go ahead.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Thank you, Jeff, and good afternoon, everyone. The fourth quarter of 2021 was a fitting year, fitting way to end the year where Oxy's operational and financial performance advanced from strong to stronger. Our focus on consistently delivering outstanding operational results, combined with our steadfast dedication and patience in improving our balance sheet, has positioned us to begin increasing the amount of capital returned to shareholders. Our new shareholder return framework, which we will detail today, includes a dividend that is sustainable in a low-price environment. We are pleased to implement this new framework, beginning with an increase in the quarterly common dividend to $0.13 per share. The position of strength that we are in today stems from our team's hard work and accomplishments last year. Throughout 2021, we strived tirelessly to improve our already exceptional operational performance.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

We capitalized on efficiency improvements by embedding innovative techniques across our operations. Our focus on learning, implementing change where needed, and maximizing opportunities for improvement enabled us to accelerate time to market for our products while generating notable capital savings. We will continue to maximize operational efficiencies in 2022 by executing on a capital plan that invests in our highest return assets to generate long-term, sustainable free cash flow. This afternoon, I will begin by covering our fourth quarter and full year 2021 highlights and achievements before detailing our 2022 capital budget. Rob and I will then discuss our shareholder return framework, and Rob will provide guidance for the first quarter and year ahead. Before turning to Q&A at the end, I will provide a preview of the Low Carbon Ventures investor update that we have planned for next month.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Now to talk about delivering cash flow priorities. Those who have followed us in Oxy's journey over the past several quarters know that our cash flow priorities have centered around de-risking our balance sheet and reducing debt. We diligently delivered on these cash flow priorities throughout 2021, including the repayment of approximately $6.7 billion of debt. We now expect that our net debt will be below $25 billion by the end of the first quarter of 2022, which will mark a change in how excess cash flow will be allocated going forward. Before I detail our updated cash flow priorities and shareholder return framework, I would like to first touch on a few of the many operational and financial successes that enabled us to reach this significant turning point.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

2021 was a year of continuous operational improvements, which drove record free cash flow generation, rapid debt reduction, and a return to profitability. One of Oxy's core strengths is our ability to develop assets in a way that efficiently maximizes production and recovery while generating significant cash flow, and that is just what we did in 2021. Multiple drilling and completion records were set across our domestic and international businesses as our production for the year averaged 1.167 million BOE per day. That's 27,000 BOE per day higher than our initial guidance. 2021 was also a more conventional year in terms of commodity prices, operations, and planning, all of which was helpful in providing a reserve update that reflects a more normalized price environment.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Our reserves for year-end 2021 increased to 3.5 billion BOE, representing a reserve replacement ratio of 241%. Our reserves position means that we have a vast supply of low break-even projects and inventory available. We have included updated inventory information for our U.S. onshore operations in the appendix to this presentation. Over the last year, we significantly advanced our commitments toward a low-carbon future. We are proud to be one of only a few oil and gas companies with net zero goals that are aligned with the Paris Agreement's 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

In December, Oxy became the first U.S. upstream oil and gas company to enter into a sustainability-linked revolving credit facility, which includes absolute reductions in our combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 CO2 equivalent emissions as the key performance indicator. We set additional interim emission targets to further refine our net zero pathway, including a short-term target to reduce our CO2 equivalent emissions to approximately 3.7 million metric tons per year below our 2021 level, and to accomplish that by 2024. We set a medium-term target to facilitate the geologic storage or use of 25 million metric tons per year of CO2 in Oxy's value chain by 2032. We also endorsed the Methane Guiding Principles and Oil & Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, a climate and clean air coalition initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

This is consistent with our commitment to enhance methane emissions reporting and reducing those emissions. Our journey towards net zero is underway, and we look forward to discussing in greater detail at our Low Carbon Ventures Investor Day, next month. Now to fourth quarter highlights. The strong operational and financial performance that we delivered throughout last year continued in the fourth quarter. We set a fourth consecutive record for quarterly free cash flow generation before working capital, which contributed to generating our highest ever annual level of free cash flow in 2021. We continued to apply free cash flow toward reducing debt and strengthening our balance sheet, repaying an additional $2.2 billion of debt in the fourth quarter. Operationally, all three business segments excelled in driving our robust financial performance.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

OxyChem delivered record earnings for the second consecutive quarter as performance throughout the year culminated in 2021 being OxyChem's strongest in over 30 years. The fourth quarter, which is typically lower due to seasonality, even exceeded the record third quarter. In our Oil and Gas segment, our Permian, Rockies and Oman teams set new operational records and efficiency benchmarks in the fourth quarter, further improving on their third quarter records. Our midstream business outperformed by maximizing gas margins during the fourth quarter. While short-term opportunities in the commodity markets are difficult to predict, our midstream team excels at finding and taking full advantage of such opportunities when they arise.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

I'm pleased to say that our fourth quarter results continue to demonstrate the commitment of all of our employees, no matter their position or location, to find ways to further create value by lowering costs, improving efficiencies, and maximizing recoveries. They truly are driving our strong financial results and providing a solid foundation for free cash flow generation. Now on to 2021 oil and gas operational excellence. On each of our last several calls, I've enjoyed highlighting the many operational achievements our teams continuously deliver. The magnitude of these achievements is striking when viewed on a combined basis over the last year. We established record drilling cycle times in the Gulf of Mexico, the Permian, Rockies, and in Oman, and set new efficiency benchmarks across our portfolio in 2021.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

We intend to maintain our focus on continuous improvement in the year ahead as we work to maximize the value our portfolio can generate for shareholders. Now our 2022 capital plan. Our 2022 capital plan invests in cash flow longevity while building on the capital intensity leadership we demonstrated in 2021. We have sized our capital plan to sustain production in 2022 at 1.155 million BOE per day, while investing in high return projects that will provide cash flow stability throughout the cycle. We have also incorporated an expectation for inflation and a capital range to reflect the potential for fluctuations in our third-party operated assets and our low carbon opportunities during the year. Our sustaining capital, which we define as the capital required to sustain production in a $40 WTI environment over a multi-year period, remains industry-leading.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Our multi-year sustaining capital is expected to increase from our 2021 capital budget of $2.9 billion to a reduced inventory of drilled uncompleted wells and additional investment in our Gulf of Mexico and EOR assets to optimize the long-term productivity of our reservoirs and facilities. If the macro environment requires spending below our multi-year sustaining capital, we have the ability to reduce it further and hold production flat for shorter periods of time, as we've demonstrated. We're also investing in attractive mid-cycle projects that will provide cash flow stability through the cycle in future years. For example, these projects include the Al Hosn expansion, which began last year, and OxyChem is in the process of completing a FEED study to modernize certain Gulf Coast chlor-alkali assets from diaphragm to membrane technology.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Our capital plan also includes investments to advance our net zero pathway, including reducing emissions, improving energy efficiency, and developing our carbon sequestration initiatives. We're allocating capital in the budget to 1PointFive to begin construction on the first direct air capture facility. We continue to make progress on both the engineering and commercial needs for our direct air capture development. We're improving both of these aspects and believe Oxy's capital helps retain value for our shareholders. As the construction phase and technology of this new project advance, we will continue to consider strategic capital partnerships and structures to address financing. We'll provide more comprehensive update on 1PointFive and direct air capture at our March 23 LCV investor update. We benefited greatly from commodity price rebound last year and appreciate how swiftly the price environment can change.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

The optionality that our scale and asset base provide enables us to retain a high degree of flexibility in our capital and spending plans. The majority of our capital program is comprised of short-cycle investments, meaning that we have the ability to quickly adapt to changes in the macro environment. Within six months or less, if necessary, we can reduce capital spending to sustaining levels. If oil prices remain supported this year, our intent is to follow our cash flow priorities and capital framework that we will share with you today. We have no need and no intent to invest in production growth this year. Having a flexible capital budget that includes investment and cash flow longevity provides us and puts us in a stronger position to implement shareholder return framework that will benefit shareholders over the long term.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

With respect to cash flow priorities, our priorities for 2022 remain largely unchanged, with a continuing emphasis on reducing debt while maintaining our asset base integrity and sustainability. The objective of strengthening our financial position remains the same, to enable us to confidently increase the amount of capital that we may sustainably return to shareholders throughout the cycle. As we expect net debt to fall below $25 billion by the end of the first quarter, our focus has expanded to returning capital to shareholders, beginning with the increase in our common dividend to $0.13 per share, and the reactivation and expansion of our share repurchase program. The increase in the dividend to $0.13 per share is consistent with our intention to initially increase the dividend to a level that approximates the yield of the S&P 500.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

We believe establishing framework for returning capital to shareholders through a sustainable common dividend, combined with an active share repurchase program and continued debt reduction, creates an attractive value proposition for shareholders while also improving the company's long-term financial position. For the first phase of our shareholder return framework initiated, we have the option in future years to invest in cash flow growth. We have the ability to grow oil and gas cash flow through higher production, but also have multiple investment opportunities across our other businesses. As evidenced by our guidance for 2022, we do not intend to grow production in 2022. At the point where it is appropriate to invest in future cash flow growth, we will only do so if supported by long-term demand. Any future production growth will be limited to an average annual rate of approximately 5%.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

I'll now turn the call over to Rob, who will walk you through our shareholder return framework.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Thank you, Vicki, and good afternoon. As Vicki mentioned, the first phase of our shareholder return framework consists of continued debt reduction, an increase in the common dividend to $0.13 per share, and the reactivation expansion of our share repurchase program. With net debt expected to be below $25 billion by the end of the first quarter, we are ready to begin returning more capital to shareholders, but we'll continue to prioritize debt reduction to focus on our medium-term goal of regaining our investment-grade credit rating. We place high importance on debt reduction for the reasons I highlighted last quarter. Mainly, that as debt is reduced, our company's enterprise value will rebalance to the benefit of our shareholders. We recognize that oil prices are uncertain and may remain volatile, particularly in the current environment.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

We intend to prioritize retirement of an additional $5 billion of debt to drive our net debt towards our next milestone of $20 billion. When this milestone is achieved, our balance sheet will improve significantly, even from where we are today. We intend to provide our shareholders with a competitive common dividend while maintaining a long-cycle cash flow breakeven at $40 WTI or less. The long-term sustainability of our dividend will be enhanced by continued deleveraging and share repurchases, as well as our best-in-class capital efficiency and a deep, low-cost portfolio of assets. As debts retire, our cash interest payments will decrease, freeing up cash that can be used to support future common dividend growth. In addition to increasing the common dividend to $0.13 per share, we intend to purchase approximately $3 billion of outstanding shares of common stock.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Maintaining an active share repurchase program with the benefit of a healthy balance sheet will potentially enable us to grow the dividend on a per-share basis at a faster rate. As evidenced by our progress in reducing debt last year, debt retirement remains a higher cash flow priority than share repurchase program. We intend to make substantial progress towards retiring an additional $5 billion of debt before initiating share repurchases. It is our goal to reward shareholders with the triple benefit of a sustainable common dividend, an active share repurchase program, and a continuously strengthening financial position. We believe the shareholder return framework we have detailed this afternoon delivers these benefits in a manner that is transparent for shareholders. I'll now turn to our fourth quarter results.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

In the fourth quarter, we announced an adjusted profit of $1.48 and a reported profit of $1.37 per diluted share. Our adjusted income improved significantly through 2021, with the fourth quarter being the strongest quarter of the year. The increase in earnings was primarily driven by higher commodity prices and volumes, as well as OxyChem's excellent financial performance. Our domestic oil and gas expenses experienced a sizable reduction on a BOE basis from the previous quarter and reflect a more normalized environment absent any significant weather disruptions. The strong performance of our businesses, combined with the benefit of a healthy commodity prices, enabled us to deliver another consecutive quarter of record free cash flow. On our third quarter call, we announced the completion of our large-scale divestiture program, but reiterated our intention to continue seeking opportunities to optimize our portfolio to create shareholder value.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

In November, we completed a bolt-on acquisition to increase our working interest in EOR assets that we operate. In January 2022, we divested a small package of permanent acreage that we had no immediate plans to develop. The purchase and sale prices of these transactions largely offset each other, while the EOR acquisition added approximately 5,000 BOE per day of low decline production as well as increasing our inventory of potential CCUS opportunity. We exited the fourth quarter approximately $2.8 billion of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet after repaying approximately $2.2 billion of debt in the quarter. In total last year, we paid approximately $6.7 billion of debt and retired a $750 million of notional interest rate swap. Our debt reduction continues to drive a pronounced improvement in our credit profile.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Since our last call, both Fitch and S&P upgraded our credit ratings to BB+, one notch below investment grade, while Moody's assigned us a positive outlook on our debt. Reducing the amount of cash that is committed to interest payments today places us in a stronger position for a sustainable return of capital in the future. We estimate that the balance sheet improvements executed in 2021 will reduce interest and financing costs by almost $250 million per year going forward, which will fund approximately half of the increase in our common dividend. Our business incurred a negative working capital change in the fourth quarter. This is primarily driven by a higher accounts receivable balance due to higher commodity prices and to a lesser extent, an increase in inventories, including a higher number of barrels on the water at year-end.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

The oil and gas hedges we had in place rolled off at the end of the fourth quarter, and we are now positioned to take full advantage of the current commodity price environment. We recognize the possibility of a swift change in commodity prices always exists. The debt maturity profile we have today is far more manageable than it was two years ago, and our liquidity profile remains robust. In addition to cash on hand, we have $4.4 billion of committed unutilized bank facilities. We continue to believe that reducing debt and maintaining maximum flexibility in our capital plans is the most effective long-term solution to managing risk while providing shareholders with the benefits of commodity price gains. We expect our full-year production to average 1.155 million BOE per day in 2022.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Production in the first quarter of 2022 is expected to be lower than the fourth quarter of 2021 due to the timing impact of wells that were brought online in 2021, severe winter weather in the Permian earlier this month, and the impact of significant planned international turnaround activities this quarter. Algeria, Al Hosn, and Dolphin are all undergoing scheduled maintenance in the first quarter, which is reflected in our international production guidance. The downtime associated with Al Hosn is notably larger than typical years as the plant is undergoing the first full shutdown since its inception to substantially complete the tie-ins associated with the expansion project and to enhance plant stability, sustainability, and reliability.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Additionally, a portion of our international production is subject to production sharing contracts, where we typically receive fewer barrels in a higher price environment, the impact of which is captured in our full year and first quarter guidance. The Permian activity we added late in the fourth quarter is expected to replace the production benefit we received in 2021 from completing our inventory of DJ Basin undrilled uncompleted wells in the early part of last year. Our 2022 Permian capital allocation is expected to provide benefits that will last into 2023. We anticipate that our activity this year will provide us the flexibility to either hold Permian production flat at our 2022 exit rate for similar capital next year, or spend less capital in 2023 to hold production relatively flat to our 2022 average.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

We also expect that our production in 2022 will increase throughout the year to achieve our full year guidance as our international operations resume their normal production levels and our activity in Permian brings new production online. Additionally, the trajectory of our Permian production is anticipated to offset lower production in Rockies this year as our activity in DJ Basin is tapered to reflect the development and planning timing to ensure efficient operations as new permits are obtained. Partially offsetting lower Rockies production with higher Permian production combined with an increase in EOR activity will result in a slightly higher domestic operating spend, as the DJ Basin has one of the lowest operating costs on a BOE basis in our portfolio.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

The increase in Permian production is expected to result in domestic cash margins improving in 2022 as the company-wide oil cut increases approximately 54.5%. Mid-cycle level of capital we intend to spend this year provides flexibility to sustain production in 2023 and beyond at our multi-year sustaining capital level of $3.2 billion in a $40 price environment. We expect that OxyChem's 2022 earnings will exceed even 2021. OxyChem continues to benefit from continued demand improvement for caustic soda while PVC pricing remains strong. Additionally, as I mentioned on our last call, we expect chlorine markets to remain tight as chlor-alkali producers seek the highest value for their products.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

OxyChem's integration across multiple chlorine derivatives enables us to optimize our production mix to supply the products the market requires, whether this is for chlorine for water treatment, vinyls, or PVC, for example. This year, we will make an incremental capital investment as we complete a FEED study for the modernization of certain Gulf Coast chlor-alkali assets from diaphragm to membrane technology. Modernizing these assets would result in a material energy efficiency improvement, which would also lower the carbon intensity per ton of the product produced and delivered. The project would also provide the opportunity for a significant expansion of our existing capacity to meet growing demand for our key products. We expect to reach final investment decision later this year, at which time we will be prepared to share additional details.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

To assist investors with reconciling our guidance with our segment earnings, we have made a change in how we guide midstream going forward. Our midstream guidance now includes income from West, which is a change to how we've guided midstream previously. Quarterly guidance now includes Oxy's portion of West income using the average of the previous four publicly available quarters. Our annual guidance now includes Oxy's portion of West income using the sum of the previous four publicly available quarters. As we look to the year ahead, we will work to continue to improve on the numerous operational and financial success of 2021, including making additional inroads on reducing debt, implementing a shareholder return framework, and advancing our low carbon aspirations. I'll now turn the call back over to Vicki.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Thank you, Rob. When we established Low Carbon Ventures in 2018, we knew we were ahead of the curve in recognizing the opportunity and necessity of building a carbon management business, both to help reduce global emissions and to enhance our business. At that time, we were focused on key technologies and projects that would reduce Oxy's emissions and provide a more sustainable future business. Today, we have advanced that vision and fully appreciate the vast scope of the carbon management opportunity, as well as the cross-industry support and partnership in front of us. On past earnings calls, we have discussed several of the initiatives Low Carbon Ventures is developing and Oxy's ambition to achieve net zero before 2050.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

We've been working on key technology developments and important commercial needs to advance LCV's projects that are now in a position to more fully detail our low carbon business and how it positions us to realize our net zero ambition and improve our long-term business. On March 23, we will host a Low Carbon Ventures investor update, where we will provide a detailed update on our low carbon strategy with a focus on the technology and commercial development of carbon capture projects, specifically direct air capture. The event, which we expect may last up to two and a half hours, will be accessible through our website. As I've said before, we are excited about our unique position and capabilities as a company.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

We value our broader low carbon and business partnerships that are growing, and our workforce is energized to advance this immense opportunity before us. We'll now open the call for your questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Today's first question comes from Jeanine Wai with Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Jeanine Wai, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Hi, good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking our questions.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Thank you.

[Jeanine Wai, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Good morning, or afternoon. It's been a long week. Our first question is on the gross debt reduction. We're assuming that the $5 billion that you're planning on getting through that can be executed through tenders. Just any idea on what the timing of that could look like for you to complete that given what you've seen in the market? Do you need to get through the full $5 billion of tenders before you begin the buybacks? When we are looking back at your prior tender and you almost got the full thing done, but that was only about a $1.5 billion?

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Good question, Jeannine. I guess, first let me comment on the tender that we did in December. You know, we were pretty aggressive on the premiums we put in that tender because we knew we had an additional $700 million of callable debt available to us at the time. We were pretty happy with the ultimate outcome that came out of that. As we move forward since then, you know, we have a lot of opportunities to reduce the debt. You know, last year, we were able to reduce $6.7 billion of debt last year. We only paid a 1.5% premium for that. Within that, $4.7 billion of that was actually concentrated in maturities that were 2024 and newer.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

When I look at the opportunities to retire debt this year, you know, as we indicated, we already retired the remaining January last of our 2022 maturities for $101 million already this month or this quarter. We do have tenders, make-whole provisions. We have the ability to build cash on a net debt basis as maturities come forward. We do have the option to settle the February 2023 notes, which is the bulk of our 2023 maturities become callable in November. But overall, when I look at our debt, it is actually even cheaper than it was at the end of the year, largely because as interest rates have risen and the prospect of interest rates rising again. Certainly the next dollar we put forward will be towards debt reduction.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

You know, with the cash we ended the year at and the cash we're adding during the quarter, it's pretty safe to say that's probably not too far in the future that we'd initiate that process again. We don't need to have all that completed before we initiate the share purchase program, but we need it to be substantially completed or have line of sight on it being completed before we begin purchasing shares.

[Jeanine Wai, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Okay, great. That's really helpful information. Thank you. Maybe just going forward a little bit beyond that on your future cash flow priorities. Oxy's got a real high-class problem. Assuming oil prices stay anywhere close to where they are today, you'll be building a significant amount of cash on the balance sheet over the next few years, even after you do the $5 billion of debt reduction and the $3 billion of buyback. I guess, have you started to assess the next steps in capital allocation after hitting your debt goals and the buyback? I guess specifically, do you have any thoughts on potentially trying to tackle the preferreds early and doing that versus either other debt reduction or production growth and just how you're thinking about the preferreds? Thank you.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

You know, we've discussed previously provisions with regards to the Berkshire agreement related to shareholder return, enabling us to begin redemption of the Berkshire at a $4 per share common dividend to our shareholders. You know, assuming we repurchased $3 billion of shares in a 12-month period, and then you combine that with $0.52 dividend payment over 4 consecutive quarters, we still wanna distribute it enough to reach a $4 per share distribution trigger. You know, it would be about $3.72 at that point. But the Berkshire common provision isn't a limit on our ability to return value to shareholders.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

It simply means the circumstance arrives and the macro puts us in a place where we have exceeded $4 per share on a trailing twelve-month basis. We would just be in a position where we have to redeem an equal portion of Berkshire at a 10% premium as we return to shareholders above and beyond that. As we sit here today in February, agreeing that, you know, there's a lot of potential for elevated oil prices over an extended period of time that would create a constructive macro for going beyond our debt focus. But it's a little too early, I think, to speculate on what we would do in that point in time.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Phil Gresh at J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

[Phil Gresh, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Hi, yes, good afternoon. I guess just to follow up on that question around the net debt, that the $20 billion dollar next step, so to speak, what is the ultimate goal, you know, with the balance sheet? Is it, you know, $10 billion-$15 billion? I mean, how do you think about that today?

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah. I think over you know, we've already seen in notes published from the various rating agencies that their expectations would be investment grade is somewhere in the mid- to high-teens. I think getting to that point, getting to a level at some point that is in that $15 billion or less net debt is an ultimate goal for the company. That would put us in a place, you know. It also depends sort of on their long-term price horizon. If you take their $60, you know, getting down to a net of $20 billion puts us close to a 2x at that point, depending on EBITDA going on a year-on-year out basis. We know we've got to do a little further than that in order to get consideration for investment grade.

[Phil Gresh, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at J.P. Morgan]

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks. Rob, you made a comment just about the Permian exit rate in 2022 and into mid-2023. I was just wondering, where do you stand in terms of the CapEx carry with the Ecopetrol JV? Is there any spending in 2022, you know, that kind of moves into the full 50/50 split, or is that a 2023 event? I'm just curious, based on your comments you're making, how you incorporated, how that could flip to the 50/50 and when.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Based on the activity level we have planned for this year, we would probably consume the balance of the carry this year, but we don't anticipate carry flipping in 2022.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Doug Leggate with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director and Head of US Oil & Gas Equity Research at Bank of America]

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Rob or Vicki, I wonder if I could follow up first on the buyback, just so as I understand it correctly. $3 billion, is that an annual number that depending on when you start the buyback, would you still expect to execute the full $3 billion in 2022, irrespective of when you hit, you know, get that line of sight, which I'm guessing is a matter of months? I guess related, you're kind of front running yourself a little bit, and one could argue you know, the stock is heavily discounted because your capital structure. Why not consider something like an ESR?

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Doug, I think the first way I'd answer part of your question is, once we begin initiate the share repurchases, it will be done both in a open market repurchase basis when the market's open and when it's closed to a ten by five type programmatic program. The stock, as you know, is extremely liquid. I mean, we can easily purchase, you know, $1 billion of shares in less than 14 trading days without, I mean, close to 15% of the average daily trading volume. There's a pretty safe way that over a fairly short period of time, if we wanted to, we could accomplish $3 billion goal. But that goal will certainly be dictated by our free cash flow generation that's largely related to the commodity prices.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

It's, you know, we're in an environment right now where the hedges have rolled off. We're giving our shareholders full exposure to commodity prices, which we think over the cycle of the commodities, will deliver the most value to company and ultimately most value to shareholders. Along with that, we realize that the macro can change. There are a lot of different risk factors that can cause prices to go unconstructive for us in a rapid fashion also. We can't find ourselves in a position where maybe we've tackled the stock ahead of time and the price environment changed for whatever reason, and we haven't addressed the debt first.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

That's part of the reason why we understand that over the course of the year, we may end up paying more for the stock to retire it. In aligning risks and opportunities for shareholders, we think that the approach we're taking is the most prudent way to do it.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director and Head of US Oil & Gas Equity Research at Bank of America]

Okay. Just to be clear, so if you started the buyback in May, you'd still expect to get $3 billion done this year? That's just for clarity. That's not my follow-up.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Well, the timeline is gonna be dependent upon availability of cash, Doug. That's what's gonna be the driver of this. In terms of ability to execute with the liquidity of the stock, a timeframe of being able to complete it in the second half of the year, even if we didn't initiate till the second half of the year, would not be a challenge.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director and Head of US Oil & Gas Equity Research at Bank of America]

Okay. Thank you. My follow-up is a resource question. Vicki, I'm guessing this was deliberate, but you've kind of laid out the inventory debt for the onshore portfolio. It looks at the current rate something around 15 years, assuming not a lot of growth. What about the Gulf of Mexico and the rest of the portfolio? Can you give us kind of an update as to how do you see the resource depth or sustainability that goes along with the sustaining capital number that you gave us?

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah, I'll let Ken answer that. He's got his team actually working on that in view of some of the challenges we've had with the recent lease sale. Actually, we have a great news story on that.

[Ken Dillon, President of International Oil and Gas Operations at Occidental Petroleum]

Morning, Doug. In terms of Gulf of Mexico, we recently completed our field architecture studies. As you know, we have 179 blocks. Around 90 of those are tagged as exploration. When we look at the risk portfolio and the opportunities we have, we have substantial work, you know, hundreds of millions of risked barrels of opportunities going forward. We have a solid assembly line of projects. We've got three projects in flight at the moment, Caesar Tonga Expansion, Horn Mountain Expansion, K2 subsea pumping. Our recent, as Vicki alluded to, lease round attempt, our goal there was to try and obtain acreage close by our existing infrastructure, to accelerate simple tie-backs. That doesn't inhibit us.

[Ken Dillon, President of International Oil and Gas Operations at Occidental Petroleum]

We have a large portfolio, and we feel comfortable going forward within the plans that, you know, have been presented in the slides.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

[Neil Mehta, VP and Integrated Oil & Refining Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Thanks, guys. The first question is on the production profile. Vicki, you had made the comment that if you think about the long term, you wanna see growth somewhere between 0%-5%. Is that sort of why how do you think about the long-term profile? Based on the way you view normal, that's a big range. Where do you see yourselves planning in the context of that range?

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Well, it really depends on the projects. What we always do is we try to design our capital programs to deliver the best returns. It's always, as we develop our areas, it's always with that in mind and to build the facilities that require a pace of development that delivers the maximum return. We could have lumpy, a little bit lumpy growth going out. Gulf of Mexico is a little bit lumpy. In the shale play, depending on whether you're starting a new area or not, could be a little bit lumpy. But certainly our capital intensity, we believe is gonna continue over time to be the best in the industry.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

The development that we'll have and whether or not we're at 0% or 5% will depend on how the program lays out to maximize returns. We have, you know, as you see, inventory onshore, inventory in the Gulf of Mexico. We have, as well, some international projects that could add value. As I mentioned in my script, we do have in our chemicals business opportunities to grow there. The efficiencies and opportunities that we see really will depend on how we can put pieces together to deliver the best possible return.

[Neil Mehta, VP and Integrated Oil & Refining Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Yeah. Yeah, certainly an evolving situation. Let me ask you about chemicals, Vicki, 'cause the 2022 guide was stronger than what we anticipated. I think a lot of investors expected chemicals to be sequentially lower. Just talk about some of the moving pieces that allows for some profitability to improve year-over-year, and what are the biggest risks to actually achieving the guide?

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah, Neil, I'll take the one on chemicals. You know, what I'd point to first, I know you understand the business well, is obviously if you look at slide 39 in the deck, the two business profit drivers in the business are the PVC business or the vinyls business and the caustic soda business, and both of those did materially improve throughout 2021. When we have favorable conditions in both, the impact to earnings is pretty significant. What you're seeing is first, let me just say that where the market is at right now is the PVC business is still quite tight, very tight supply-demand balance. I think operating rates for the industry were in 81% in January.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Demand was slightly higher in January 2022 relative to January 2021, less than 1%, but a little bit better. Producers are attempting to build inventory in PVC right now in advance of outages that are scheduled. You've got this situation where they already had low inventories and the pull from the construction sector remains strong. You've got attempts to grow inventories while demand is still quite strong. We expect demand to remain strong in the PVC business throughout 2022. There's a very favorable housing starts outlook. Mortgage rates obviously remain pretty low, and the remodeling sector also remains very attractive. You can look at the export side of the business. In January, there's only about 250 million pounds of exports, which is about 30% less than 2021.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

That's reflective of the lack of product available right now. We certainly see you're not gonna have an opportunity for inventory to really replenish itself and exports to even return until probably the latter part of the second quarter when resin supply might be normalized in the wake of outages, assuming there's no unplanned outages over that period. In the case of the chlor-alkali side, we're seeing a very tight supply demand market, largely because of production challenges. Operating rates, we think in the industry are gonna be somewhere in the low 80s for the first quarter. There's a lot of planned outages scheduled now in May 2022, but there's been a significant number of unplanned outages still in the industry, impacting product availability.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

On the chlorine side, we'll see growth at least 3%-4% this year. Again, all the chlor sector markets are strong with the similar markets to PVC that draw on the chlor-alkali side of the business. We think that'll be also supplemented by just improving travel and then business spending. Return to office will drive, you know, pulp and paper usage for caustic soda, et cetera. A lot of things that we think are gonna be positive on that. On the international side of the caustic business, certainly rising natural gas prices and availability in Europe and Asia will have already impacted operating rates of chlorovinyl producers overseas, which is driving up values of that.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

The biggest change here, Viren, why I think there's maybe a surprise because, you know, conditions were so remarkable in 2021 and why would we be guiding something higher than that is that if you go back and look at the beginning of the year, caustic soda at the beginning of 2021 was still coming out of really low values at the post-COVID drop in 2020. PVC had recovered very quickly on the construction side, but caustic was dragging its way up little by little out of the lows experienced during 2020.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

Caustic prices improved sequentially quarter after quarter throughout 2021, which is why you'll see the earnings for the segment in the fourth quarter, which typically, you know, the first and fourth are the shoulder quarters and the strong ones are the midyear, you know, Q2, Q3. You had almost double the earnings in this chemical segment in the fourth quarter compared to the first quarter. We're coming in with so much more momentum, which is why our guide for Q1 is so strong for the chemical business. It's not that we're predicting those conditions persist all the way through the entire year. We're just gonna start from a higher point.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

How long those conditions persist will impact whether that guidance actually could increase the balance of the year potentially if it holds on longer than we're anticipating. We do anticipate that things, as I said, will start to normalize maybe the middle part of the year.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Matt Portillo with TPH. Please go ahead.

[Matthew Portillo, Partner and Head of Research at TPH&co]

Good morning, all. Just the first question on the DJ Basin. You mentioned in the prepared remarks some timing around permitting. Just curious if you could provide some context on the permitting process and where it stands today. Is this a good level of development to think about for next year, or should we expect a rebound in the DJ in 2023 as it relates to drilling?

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

Hi, Matt. This is Richard. I'll take that one for us. You know, with respect to permits in the DJ, you know, we really have had good progress over the last year, is how I would describe it. You know, just looking at some of the permits in hand, we've had about 46 wells permitted, which takes us through really past half the year. What we've really put in place is optionality in our program. If you dig into sort of our onshore plan for this year, we have plans to pick up a second rig in the year. Really that's based on confidence with where we're going with our permits.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

As you know, last year some changes in terms of the process happened, and we've been meaningfully engaged over the last year, importantly at the stakeholder level in communities and then now at the state. We've seen in our own pads approved as well as other operators. I think, you know, the feedback that we've received and we continue to work on together is, you know, continuing to improve technology and things that we know that can really place us in a good place for development. I guess, in short, we're optimistic. We've got a rig planned to come in in the second half of the year, but have optionality within the program to be able to adjust as needed.

[Matthew Portillo, Partner and Head of Research at TPH&co]

Perfect. Maybe a follow-up on the marketing side. I know as an organization, you guys have been very thoughtful about this process through the cycle. The basin, it looks like there's possibly some solutions on the horizon for incremental gas takeaway. Just curious how you all might be thinking about potentially adding to your takeaway portfolio from a gas marketing perspective, and then maybe dovetailing into that. On the crude oil side, can you just remind us when some of those contracts start to roll over and if there's any tailwinds to the financials kind of moving forward over the next few years around crude oil marketing?

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah, Matt, we really have enough gas capacity and as much as we feel like we need at this point, and with respect to our growth profile. For the oil side of it, the contracts start rolling off in 2025 for the oil and gas, for the oil part of the contract. We have plenty of capacity. At that time, I think it'll take probably a couple of years to get us down to the point where all the contracts roll off.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question today comes from Neal Dingmann at Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

[Neal Dingmann, Managing Director at Truist Securities]

Morning, all. Or good afternoon. Vicki, my first question may apply to you. You mentioned just a couple of minutes ago here that you thought you maybe would ramp the chemicals. You know, obviously as a finance guy, that just seems continuously. I know when I saw Rob in December, and it just continues to get better and better. I guess my question is, as a financial guy, how much can you grow that? Would that grow in conjunction with your low carbon solution business? I know you've talked about that in the past. I'm just wondering how much could you push that business given it just continues to hit the ball out the park on that one.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

I think we'll talk about that a little bit more as we talk about the project and the capital that we're executing to convert our diaphragms and membranes because that's gonna improve some efficiency in the areas where we're doing that conversion. We'll actually be able to increase our capacity. We'll outline that and detail that a little more in the next earnings call because right now we're currently in the process of doing the FEED study on that.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

For today, with respect to other opportunities, we will continue to consider incoming calls about potential partnerships where it makes sense to do projects with either customers or from the perspective of supporting low-carbon ventures. We try to be opportunistic in chemicals and not build without certainly the demand for the product. On the low-carbon venture side, we're as we go through this, finding opportunities where there are synergies and growing synergies between the chemicals business and the low-carbon business. So it will have some growth around that.

[Neal Dingmann, Managing Director at Truist Securities]

No, that's great to hear. Just a second, you talked just a minute ago also about the DJ. My thought is, it sounds like some of the Permian production is gonna replace DJ this year. Is that gonna be the case going forward? You know, is that because, you know, you're talking about. I know, Richard, you're talking about the Permian all in shape. I'm just wondering what's sort of the reason or rationale for why not just grow both of these? I mean, I'm looking at that, you know-

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah, it really just depends on the permitting process because we do have really good inventory in the DJ Basin as well. As we go forward and we work out the process, if we get ahead on the permitting, we would consider adding a rig or two to the DJ as well.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Deckelbaum at Cowen. Please go ahead.

[David Deckelbaum, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Cowen and Cowen]

Thanks for all the details today, Vicki and team, and congrats on the visibility of $20 billion of debt. I wanted to ask just on the sustaining capital. There were lots of in and outs, particularly around the Gulf of Mexico and EOR catch up, some normalization of Rockies DUCs. I guess when we think about that delta between the $2.8 billion or $2.9 billion that you guys had talked about last year, you know, and the $400 million increment this year, how do we think about that sustaining capital level progressing into the out years now? Does it have some upwards pressure on it because of catch-ups? Or should we look at this as a catch-up year and that should moderate potentially decline, along with base declines moderating?

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

Maybe we'll start with onshore and speak to that a little bit. I think you've got it right. I think if you look, you know, over the last couple of years and what's happened, certainly 2020 had a significant reset for us in terms of activity levels. You know, preserving cash investment at that point and really dropped activity levels almost completely. You know, coming on the back half and into 2021, we had things like the DUCs in the DJ that allowed us that ability to add production and maximize cash flow for 2021 with a lot less capital investment.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

What happened last year was really, you know, as we think about the transition, it went from transitioning from DUCs as we restored activity, really to drilling and completion, which is a much more steady state pipeline for our production delivery. The way that played out was really at the end of the fourth quarter, beginning of the first quarter, we were able to pick up our drilling and frac crews to sustain the production for this year, which did a couple of things. One, it was good because, as we head into inflationary period, we were able to gain activity and, you know, create that stability within our capital program.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

What it does is it did create a bit of a lump that we have most of our wells online really starting late in the first quarter, and then you hit more steady state in the second and third quarter. As that projects into the end of the year and into 2023, you can tell from our first quarter guide into total year that we do have an increase of production. Those type events, as well as restoring activity really from a cash investment perspective in EOR, adding low decline production barrels, really gives us a much more sustainable production level across the cycle. You know, I think we're restoring, as you said, a much more normal steady state activity level and a much more robust or sustainable free cash flow capability.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

I think considering the rest of the portfolio, we don't see a lot of upward pressure for the $3.2 billion as a whole.

[Neal Dingmann, Managing Director at Truist Securities]

David, just to add to your point, I mean, on top of what Richard and Vicki just went through, I mean, from a decline standpoint, as you know, we improved, you know, the base decline from 25% two years ago to 22% last year. It's the same this year. It's at 22%, as well. Given the things Richard said, that gives potential to flatten that out a bit in the future.

[Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO at Occidental Petroleum]

I appreciate all the color on that. If I could just ask a quick follow-up. I'm understanding there was $400 million, I think, that was attributed to the difference, the low end versus the high end of capital guide, which I think you talked about low-carbon ventures spends that would be potential in OBO. I guess it, for that low-carbon ventures spend, would that just be accelerating some projects, or is it a contingency for things that you're considering doing but aren't sure if you want to pursue at this point? I guess, how do we think about that sort of allowance that's built into that, the difference in the low and the high end?

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

Yeah. This is Richard again. I think you've got it right from the standpoint of really the LCV capitals certainly focus meaningfully on our direct air capture plant one. There is a project timeline associated with that. Engineering is going great. The commercial aspects of the project continue to be supportive. There's a little bit of uncertainty there. That component, we'll have more visibility and be able to talk more about even with you next month. In addition to that, what's happened is really beyond strong engineering progress, we continue to have good commercial support, whether that's global policy recognition for carbon capture or even direct air capture in particular, or even with strategic net zero businesses. These things support commerciality.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

What's happened is we do see additional opportunities for direct air capture. For example, we had an opportunity in Canada to look at with a developer, direct air capture with AIR TO FUELSâ„¢. A bit of that money is, as these projects become more opportunistic, we would allocate some feasibility capital to be able to look at these other type projects. The final piece is really our CCUS, and you've probably seen some pieces around projects that we're involved with. Those continue moving beyond into commercial development. We have some capital associated to continue those. You know, that again be able to share more in March around that, but look forward to these projects advancing meaningfully this year.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, our final question today comes from Raphaël Dubois with Société Générale. Please go ahead.

[Raphaël DuBois, Equity Research Analyst at Société Générale]

Hello. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The first one is related to your EOR business. Could you maybe tell us a bit more how production in this division has trended since you stopped reporting it as a single entity? And also, I was wondering if the extra CapEx you will throw at this business is solely to stop decline or whether you intend to restart growing this business as well.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

Maybe I'll start with the EOR just a little bit. If we think about the last couple years, I'd say the opportunity in front of us really to address any decline that we've seen is really and this comes to our OpEx when we talk about that. That's really restoration of maintenance and specifically down-hole maintenance. The ability to allocate some of that cash investment to restore down production is some of the best cash investment we have. It's very high return even at mid-cycle prices. We expect to be able to and have added some well service rigs to add up to 6,000 barrels a day by year-end.

[Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management at Occidental Petroleum]

That really, you know, restores the normal backlog and maintenance schedule that we had, you know, really going back to 2019. That that's the most meaningful change in terms of the EOR business that we're approaching this year.

[Raphaël DuBois, Equity Research Analyst at Société Générale]

Excellent. Thank you very much. My follow-up will be, actually on Algeria. I see that you're gonna have some activity there in 2022. I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more what you have in store for this part of the world, knowing that we in Europe are gonna need much more gas from other suppliers, and it would be great if you had some projects, some gas projects in Algeria, for instance.

[Ken Dillon, President of International Oil and Gas Operations at Occidental Petroleum]

Hi, it's Ken here. First of all, I'd say the operations team had a great year last year and achieved a 50,000 barrel a day milestone. On the contract side, we spent the time optimizing the future development plans that you're sort of alluding to. We worked through the legal framework around the new hydrocarbon law, which is designed to encourage foreign investment in the country. This year, we'll drill four wells. There'll be two injectors, two producers. We've now started negotiations with Sonatrach and we're in the early stages. As a large American company with state-of-the-art shale capabilities, we think we have a lot to offer the country going forward, and hopefully that helps in Europe also. We'll keep you updated on our progress at the next call.

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Vicki Hollub for any closing remarks.

[Vicki Hollub, President and CEO at Occidental Petroleum]

Before we go, I'd like to say that we stand in firm condemnation of the insane and inhumane actions taken by Putin and Russia to invade Ukraine. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people of Ukraine. Thank you all for your questions and for joining our call today.

[Operator]

Thank you, ma'am. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.

Participants

Executives

• Jeff Alvarez, VP of Investor Relations
• Ken Dillon, President of International Oil and Gas Operations
• Richard Jackson, President, Operations, U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management
• Rob Peterson, SVP and CFO
• Vicki Hollub, President and CEO

Analysts

• David Deckelbaum, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Cowen and Cowen
• Doug Leggate, Managing Director and Head of US Oil & Gas Equity Research at Bank of America
• Jeanine Wai, Equity Research Analyst at Barclays
• Matthew Portillo, Partner and Head of Research at TPH&co
• Neal Dingmann, Managing Director at Truist Securities
• Neil Mehta, VP and Integrated Oil & Refining Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Phil Gresh, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at J.P. Morgan
• Raphaël DuBois, Equity Research Analyst at Société Générale