Occidental Petroleum oil and gas exploration summary

Conventional exploration is no longer viewed as the key growth theme for Occidental, adding just 0.4 billion boe of resource over the last decade. Oxy radically reshaped its business and strategy in 2014/15, becoming more streamlined. The portfolio is centred on two areas – onshore US and the Middle East, focused on large, long-lived liquids-rich resource plays. Growth is based on two key strengths: Permian Basin resource plays, and EOR. Portfolio build in the US has relied mostly on acquisition, with exploration spend much lower than other large independents. The company has completed few international wildcats over the past decade, focused instead on onshore around legacy positions in Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East. Its preference is for low exploration risk, in contrast to a willingness to accept much higher engineering risk. Full details are provided in our report, and all data and analysis can be downloaded in excel and pdf format.