Occidental Petroleum Corp said it would be selling minority shares in its operations located in the Middle East and North Africa. It would also be divesting its other assets to improve the value of its shareholders. One of the investments that it would divest would be a portion of its 35% stake it holds in the general partner of Plains All-American Pipeline. According to the company, this would give them a pretax gain of USD 1.3 billion.

Occidental Petroleum Chief Executive Officer Stephen Chazen said about the sales, "These are the first formal steps in our effort to streamline the business, concentrate in areas where we have depth and scale and improve overall profitability. Our goal is to become a somewhat smaller company with more manageable exposure to political risk."

July, Chazen said the company's board was thinking of splitting its California unit. After his meeting with Chazen, Deutsche Bank Analyst Paul Sankey also said in May that the oil firm was also thinking of selling a 25% stake in its operations in the Middle East and North Africa.