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Oil and gas
Occidental’s growth strategy in oil and gas relies on three components: enhanced oil recovery (EOR), exploration and acquisitions. Occidental’s oil and gas operations are focused in three core areas, the United States, the Middle East/North Africa, and South America. Occidental had approximately 3.36 billion barrels of oil equivalent net proved reserves at December 31, 2010. In 2010, the company had its highest annual daily sales volume in history – 748,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

The United States accounted for 66 percent of Occidental's oil and gas reserves and 51 percent of the current production in 2010. Occidental is the largest producer of natural gas and second-largest producer of oil and gas on a barrels of oil equivalent basis in California, where in 2009 it made what is believed to be the largest oil and natural gas discovery in the state in 35 years. It also operates the THUMS Islands in the San Pedro Bay. Occidental's total share of oil and gas 2010 production in California was approximately 139,000 barrel of oil equivalent per day and its properties held approximately 768 million barrel of oil equivalent in proved reserves.

Occidental also has significant oil and natural gas holdings in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. Occidental is the largest oil producer in the Permian Basin, where it produced roughly 197,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010 and held 1.2 billion barrels of proved reserves as of December 31, 2010. In the Permian Basin, Oxy is the largest operator of EOR oil projects that inject carbon dioxide into underground formations to extract the oil and gas that remains after primary recovery operations. In 2010, the company’s 31 CO2 projects produced nearly 85,000 barrels of oil per day as a result of EOR, according to Oil & Gas Journal’s biennial EOR survey.

Occidental’s Mid-Continent Gas operations are concentrated in the Permian Basin, Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Oklahoma. These operations produced approximately 62,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2010 and had proved reserves of 266 million barrels of oil equivalent, as of December 31, 2010. In 2010, Oxy announced the acquisition of new shale oil properties in Williston Basin in North Dakota as well as natural gas and oil properties in South Texas.

Occidental’s Middle East and North Africa operations accounted for 38 percent of its worldwide production in 2010, producing approximately 287,500 barrels of oil equivalent. The region also holds 26 percent of the company’s proved reserves. In the Middle East, Occidental has operations in Libya, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Yemen. Oxy is the second-largest oil producer in Oman. In Qatar, it is a partner in the giant Dolphin natural gas project, which delivers gas to Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The company has its only operation in North Africa in Libya. In 2005, Occidental and partner Liwa won eight out of 15 exploration spots on the EPSA-4 auction, making both companies among the first to enter the Libyan market since the United States lifted its embargo on that country. In early 2011, Occidental won a contract to join Abu Dhabi’s state oil company in developing the Shah natural-gas project, one of the largest natural gas fields in the Middle East.

In South America, Occidental operates in Bolivia and Colombia. Occidental’s share of production from its Colombia assets was approximately 32,000 barrels of oil per day in 2010. In Colombia, Occidental and Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company, discovered the giant Caño Limón oilfield in 1983. It proved to be the largest discovery in Colombia’s oil history and helped return the country to the oil-exporter status.

In 2010, Occidental announced the sale of its oil and gas operations in Argentina to Sinopec, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation; the transaction was completed in early 2011. Occidental formerly operated in Ecuador, but the government ended the company's interests in block 15 in the Ecuadorian Amazon in 2006.

Chemical
Oxy’s subsidiaries include wholly owned chemical manufacturers Occidental Chemical Corporation (OxyChem), OxyVinyls, and INDSPEC Chemical Corporation. OxyChem is a Dallas, Texas-based manufacturer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resins, chlorine and caustic soda used in plastics, pharmaceuticals and water treatment chemicals. Other products manufactured by the company include caustic potash, chlorinated organics, sodium silicates, chlorinated isocyanurates and calcium chloride. OxyChem has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Chile and Brazil.

Through joint ventures, Oxy indirectly owns Armand Products Company, with OxyChem and Church & Dwight Co., Inc., which sells potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate. Carbocloro S.A. Indústrias Químicas, a joint venture between OxyChem and UNIPAR, manufactures and sells chlor-alkali products in Brazil.

On October 11, 2008, an accidental spill of oleum, a chemical similar to sulfuric acid, occurred at INDSPEC’s facility in Petrolia, Pennsylvania. The accident caused contamination of the ventilation system and a cloud of toxic gas in the Petrolia sky. 2,500 residents of the area were asked to evacuate.

Oil shale
Starting in 1972, Occidental Oil Shale, Inc., a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum, began research on a shale oil extraction process, ending research in 1991. The company conducted the first modified in situ oil shale experiment in 1972 at Logan Wash, Colorado. The process used explosives to create underground chambers (retorts) of fractured oil shale. About 20% was mined out after which blasting was used to fracture oil shale. The commercial-sized retort covered 333 by area and had height of 400 ft. Oil shale was then ignited on the top by external fuel and air or steam was injected to control the process. As a result, combustion moved from the top to the bottom of retort.

During the process four major zones could be identified. In the pre-heat zone air contacted processed hot shale (spent shale) which pre-heated air. In the combustion zone, oxygen in air was used to burn carbon residue in the spent shale. Below this zone, heated gas caused retorting process converting kerogen in oil shale to oil shale gas and shale oil vapors. In the final zone oil and gas were cooled and collected through separation sump and collecting well. All together, six retorts have been burned at the site.