LOS ANGELES, May 6, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ray R. Irani, reported on the company's record 2004 performance today at the company's annual stockholders meeting.
"It was a year of outstanding achievements," Dr. Irani reported. "Record oil and gas operating income and strong operating income from our chemical business pushed our consolidated net income to a record high of $2.6 billion -- beating our previous best performance in 2000 by a billion dollars after taxes."
The company's 2005 total return to stockholders of 41 percent outperformed the S&P Oil Index return (31 percent), and was substantially higher than the S&P 500 Index (11 percent) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (5 percent).
Dr. Irani also highlighted Occidental's first quarter 2005 results which saw net income rise to a record high of $846 million for a quarter, an increase of 74 percent compared to the first quarter 2004.
"Our strength has been our financial discipline and focus in executing our strategy that balances long-term growth with near-term profitability," said Dr. Irani. "We believe the investments we are making in projects now will yield profitable growth opportunities and stockholder value for many years."
Dr. Irani also reported to stockholders on an important Heads of Agreement which Occidental recently signed with the Government of Oman to develop the Mukhaizna oil field, one of the largest oil fields in that country. Under the terms of the agreement, Occidental will be the operator of the field and will partner with the Government of Abu Dhabi through its ownership of and Liwa Energy Limited. Occidental and its partners expect to invest $2 billion in the field to increase current production from about 10,000 barrels of oil per day today, to approximately 150,000 barrels per day within the next few years, and recover approximately one billion barrels of oil over the life of this project.
Dr. Irani also discussed three new domestic acquisitions of oil and gas assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas (two of which are completed and one that is pending), which will help Occidental achieve its year-end 2005 oil and gas production target of 600,000 equivalent barrels per day announced earlier in the year.
The Mukhaizna project and Occidental's new exploration venture in Libya are expected to help fuel the company's growth in future years.
Statements in this presentation that contain words such as "will," "expect" or "estimate," or otherwise relate to the future, are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect expected results. Factors that could cause results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: exploration risks such as drilling of unsuccessful wells; global commodity pricing fluctuations and supply/demand considerations for oil, gas and chemicals; higher-than-expected costs; political risk; and not successfully completing (or any material delay in) any expansion, capital expenditure, acquisition, or disposition. Occidental disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) permits oil and natural gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved reserves demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically producible under existing economic and operating conditions. We use certain terms in this press release, such as probable, possible and recoverable reserves, that the SEC's guidelines strictly prohibit us from using in filings with the SEC. U.S. investors are urged to consider carefully the disclosure in our Form 10-K, available through the following toll-free telephone number, 1-888-OXYPETE (1-888-699-7383) or on the Internet at http://www.oxy.com. You also can obtain a copy from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.