US independent Occidental (Oxy) has transformed its Mena portfolio over the past decade. While at first glance the trend appears to be one of downsizing and shifting focus to the US, especially when taking into account last year’s acquisition of Anadarko, there is more going on beneath the surface.

Certainly Oxy’s Mena portfolio is now much slimmer – and indeed the North Africa quotient has been jettisoned, while Oxy also plans to offload the only Mena element of Anadarko’s portfolio (Algeria) to Total (MEES, 6 March, MEES, 10 May 2019). But, while the headline oil production numbers have dropped 40% over the past decade, regional gas output is up nearly 20% over the same period. (CONTINUED - 1151 WORDS)