Occidental Petroleum → Anadarko Petroleum
Occidental's $57bn takeover of Anadarko, including debt, took the company from Chevron in 2019 with $10bn of Berkshire Hathaway money and a structure that avoided a vote of Occidental's own shareholders — and carried the debt straight into the 2020 oil-price collapse.
Outbid Chevron with $10bn of Berkshire Hathaway preferred financing, over the objection of Occidental's largest shareholders.
- Value
- $57B
- Announced
- April 2019
- Completed
- August 2019
- Sector
- Energy
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Occidental Petroleum (United States)
- Target
- Anadarko Petroleum (United States)
Why it mattered
Anadarko, based in The Woodlands, Texas, held more than 580,000 gross acres in the Permian's Delaware Basin, a large Denver Basin position and interests from Colombia to Mozambique, where an LNG project was starting. Chevron agreed first, on 12 April 2019, at $65 a share in cash and stock: $33bn, or $50bn including debt. Occidental, led by Vicki Hollub, had already offered $76 a share and kept going. On 30 April Berkshire Hathaway committed $10bn for preferred shares paying 8% and warrants over 80m Occidental shares at $62.50. On 5 May Occidental agreed to sell Anadarko's assets in Algeria, Ghana, Mozambique and South Africa to Total for $8.8bn, and raised the cash in its $76 offer to $59 a share, so that no vote of its own shareholders was needed — the reason, Occidental said, Anadarko had cited for preferring Chevron's lower bid.
Chevron declined to match on 9 May and took a $1bn termination fee; Occidental signed the same day at a value of $57bn including debt, promising $3.5bn a year of cost and capital savings and $10–15bn of disposals. Carl Icahn, who built a stake of about 4.4% after 2 May, criticised the acquisition and sought by written consent to replace four of Occidental's directors. Anadarko's shareholders approved it with more than 99% of votes cast, and it closed on 8 August 2019.
What it left behind
The timing was punishing. In 2020 Occidental reported a net loss of $14.8bn, including $11.1bn of impairments and other charges, and cut its quarterly dividend from $0.79 to $0.01 a share. In March 2020 it gave Icahn three board seats. Berkshire's role grew: holding 28% of Occidental's shares, it bought the chemicals arm OxyChem for about $9.5bn after adjustments, completed on 2 January 2026, with Occidental earmarking $6.5bn to cut debt — while still paying Berkshire $170m a quarter on the preferred shares. Hollub retired as chief executive in June 2026. Financing that wins a contested auction has a long tail: the preferred shares, the disposals and the balance-sheet repair were all part of the price of outbidding Chevron.