LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Occidental Petroleum Corporation's (NYSE:OXY) chairman and chief executive officer, Dr. Ray R. Irani, told shareholders at the company's annual meeting that he was "highly confident that we will be able to reduce our total debt this year by $1 billion dollars while at the same time vigorously pursuing new growth initiatives in the oil and gas segment -- particularly in the Middle East."
"2000 was a year of record earnings and cash flow, substantial debt repayment, significant cost reductions and the development of promising new business opportunities. Earlier this week, we announced first quarter earnings before special items of $510 million, or $1.38 per share, for the strongest quarter in Occidental's history," Dr. Irani said.
Oil and gas earnings of $946 million after foreign taxes and before domestic taxes and corporate items more than offset a $53 million loss posted by the chemical segment, which experienced weak demand and high energy costs.
"We fully expect to be reporting to you next year that 2001 also was an outstanding year of financial performance," Dr. Irani told the assembled shareholders.
Dr. Irani also pointed out that Occidental's performance was recognized in a special issue of BusinessWeek that ranked Occidental seventh among the Standard & Poor's 500 companies, based on a combination of sales growth, profits, return on equity and total return to shareholders over periods of one and three years. He also noted that Occidental's rankings among both the Fortune 500 and Forbes 500 companies for the year 2000 were significantly higher than in 1999.
"In Fortune, we were ranked number one in profitability among the fifteen companies within the Mining and Crude Oil Production category. Our ranking based on sales was number 133, up from number 235 in 1999," Dr. Irani said.
Of the 817 companies Forbes ranked in one or more categories of the biggest corporations, Occidental was ranked number 74 based on profits. Occidental's "super ranking" by Forbes, which was based on a combination of performance indicators, was number 112, up from number 193 in 1999.
The company's performance is being driven by its oil and gas operations, which have been strengthened significantly since 1997 when the company shifted its focus to long-lived, high margin assets in three core areas -- the United States, the Middle East and Latin America.
Forward-looking statements and estimates regarding exploration and production activities, oil, gas and commodity chemical prices and their related earnings effects, and cost reductions in this release are based on assumptions concerning market, competitive, regulatory, environmental, operational and other conditions. Actual results could differ materially as a result of factors discussed in Occidental's Annual Report on Form 10-K.