Occidental's Continued Outperformance Drives Robust Outlook for Fiscal 2023

Occidental is one of the world's largest independent oil and gas producers. Its upstream operations are spread across the U.S., Middle East, and North Africa. It also has a consolidated midstream business, which provides gathering, processing, and transport services to the upstream segment, and it separately holds an equity interest in WES Midstream (a remnant of the 2019 acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum). The portfolio also includes a chemicals business, which produces caustic soda (an industrial alkali) and PVC (a construction material). The latter segment benefits from low energy and ethylene costs and profitability is determined by the strength of the broader economy.