Hey Warren & Charlie!! Here’s the Financial History of Occidental (2022 edition & hopefully not the last)

About a year ago I began gathering the data on OXY.

But when speculation picked up that Buffett could take the company private I stepped up the effort.

With Harold Hamm looking to take $CLR private the question now turns to Berkshire and $OXY. So I had to get this post out ASAP.

Going private makes sense 1) FCF for these companies are insanely high. All time records on all metrics. 2) avoid political backlash of Biden bashing you about capex vs buybacks, and 3) don’t have to file with SEC anymore.

Downside - I can’t update my charts anymore.

For the record I have absolutely ZERO knowledge of Berkshire’s intention. I’m just a dude with a library card that likes making charts on oil things.

The history of OXY is one of the coolest in the industry.

The company’s origins goes back to the 1920s but its true history begins when Armand Hammer took control in the late 1950s.

OXY Annual Reports. R.I.P.

The Hammer was a very unique character. In my book he is right up there with Calouste Gulbenkian, Marcus Samuel & Marc Rich.

In one lifespan he rubbed shoulders with men and women at the epicenter of geopolitics such as Lenin, FDR, Qaddafi, Nasser, Brezhnev and Reagan to name a few.

He spearheaded the development of the Libya oil industry with the prolific finds in the Sirte Basin vaulting the company to the 6th largest producer in the world.

Check this image below of the company trenching pipe in the desert.

OXY Annual Reports

This independent upstart company disrupted the global world oil order of the Seven Sisters and the events in Libya would eventually lead to the wave of nationalization that would shift the balance of power away from the oil companies to the producing countries.

Qaddafi seized power in a coup, deposing King Idris shown below (sitting with a cane).

Armand Hammer is pictured at the presentation stand

But ya gotta pay for a revolution so Qadaffi and his deputy Prime Minister, Abdel Salaam Ahmed Jalloud would threaten nationalization of OXY’s assets unless they received better concession terms.

These negotiations would often occur with a machine gun or pistol sitting at the table between OXY’s people and Jalloud.

Unlike other oil companies 100% of their production was tied to just one country as shown below.