US oil and gas company Occidental has signed two agreements to divest certain upstream assets for a combined value of $1.2bn.
As part of the deal, Occidental is selling nonoperated assets in the Rockies and select Permian Basin assets that are not included in its immediate development plans.
The company also announced that it has reached its near-term debt repayment goal of $4.5bn in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024.
The divestiture transactions are set to close in Q1 2025 and the proceeds from these sales will be directed towards addressing the company's remaining debt maturities for 2025.
Occidental president and CEO Vicki Hollub said: “We were pleased to reach the near-term deleveraging milestone in the fourth quarter of 2024, within five months of closing the CrownRock acquisition, and seven months ahead of our goal.
“The transactions announced today continue to high-grade our portfolio and accelerate the progress toward achieving both our medium-term balance sheet deleveraging target and shareholder return pathway.”
Occidental said its focus on deleveraging will continue through the generation of free cash flow and further divestitures.
The company reported a pretax income of $1.2bn from its oil and gas operations for Q4 2024.
Despite this, the company recorded a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $297m, or $0.32 per diluted share, during the three months under review.
Adjusted income attributable to common stockholders stood at $792m, or $0.80 per diluted share, for the same period.
The company’s total average global production reached 1.46 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) per day in the fourth quarter, surpassing the mid-point of guidance by 13mboe per day.
Production increases were led by the Permian and Rockies and other domestic regions while production from the Gulf of America and international regions met the provided guidance, the company said.
By the end of 2024, Occidental's global proved reserves had increased to 4.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe), up from 4bboe in 2023.
The growth was primarily fuelled by acquisitions totalling 623mboe, largely attributed to the CrownRock acquisition.
Additionally, the company recorded 326mboe from extensions and new discoveries, predominantly in the Permian Basin.
