It is, however, lacking external funding to fulfill its
plan to build more than 100 DAC units, starting with the second
plant.
"We intend to continue allocating excess free cash flow
towards share repurchases," CEO Vicki Hollub said in a webcast
to discuss the company's first quarter results.
The pace of the buyback program, including payments to
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc , a key
stockholder, could be accelerated if annualized oil prices stay
above the $75 per barrel, the company said.
Occidental will limit capital spending in low carbon initiatives this year to $600 million, the CEO said, and is in talks with a potential partner to fund DAC plants.
"We are having some really good conversations with a preferred partner that could materialize maybe sometime this year" or next year, Hollub said. "So we do expect to get some funding".
In the first quarter, Occidental began retiring some of
the $10 billion of preferred stock it sold Berkshire to help
fund the acquisition of Anadarko operations four years ago.
The move saves Occidental some of the $800 million of annual dividends it had been paying Berkshire. Buffett's company also owns 23.7% of Occidental's common stock. The billionaire said on Saturday that Berkshire was not
planning to seek control of Occidental.
Oxy shares fell more than 3% on Wednesday to $56.91, trading close to a 52 week-low, amid poor oil production performance in the second quarter.
Hollub said production will recover throughout the year
after stoppages for scheduled maintenances concentrated this
quarter.
(Reporting by Sabrina Valle; additional reporting by Jonathan
Stempel
Editing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)
