Lured by Texas Talent, Occidental Strays from California Roots

Shifting Identity

Occidental is still ranked as the third-most-valuable company in Southern California, and the name of Armand Hammer, who oversaw its global expansion after a big California discovery in 1961, adorns a popular West Los Angeles art museum.

Even so, the company is busy shoring up local relations in Houston. Last month the Houston Astros baseball team hosted more than 2,000 Occidental employees and family members at Community Leader Occidental Night to celebrate a new partnership with the Astros Foundation to refurbish Houston playing fields.

Occidental, whose chief executive officer is a Vietnam veteran, is even sponsoring a salute to the military at every Astros home game this year.

CEO Steve Chazen has his own roots in Texas as a University of Houston alumnus who, according to public records, also owns a condominium in Galveston on the Texas coast.

Oxy's California connection may soon disappear in any case. The company is exploring a potential spinout of its California operations into a separate company - which would leave its U.S. focus largely in the Permian basin that straddles New Mexico and Texas.

California represents a third of Oxy's U.S. oil and gas production, while the Permian accounts for about 45 percent.

Morningstar's Good expects more clarity by the end of this year on plans for a California spinoff and any deal for the company's Middle East operations, which should both at least be set in motion before Chazen steps down at the end of 2014.