By Benoît Morenne and Connor Hart
Occidental Petroleum Chief Executive Vicki Hollub is retiring next month after 10 years leading the oil-and-gas company and will hand the reins to her chief operating officer, Richard Jackson.
Hollub, 66, has spent more than four decades with Occidental and became the first woman to be CEO of a major U.S. oil company in 2016.
During her tenure, she helped transform the company following a $38 billion acquisition of a rival, Anadarko Petroleum, which, after initially drawing the ire of major shareholders, gave the company a dominant position in the largest oil field in the U.S. Her management has earned the accolades of Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway has held a major stake in Occidental for years.
"It has been a privilege to lead Occidental and work alongside such a talented team for more than 40 years," Hollub said. "Following the recently completed decade-long transformation of the company, we now have the best portfolio and the best technical expertise in Occidental's history."
Jackson, who will also assume the title of president, joined Occidental in 2003 in its Middle East operations. He has since then held a variety of leadership and technical positions of increasing responsibility.
"I am grateful to be appointed president and CEO of Occidental and excited about the opportunity to execute from the strong position and capabilities that we built under Vicki's leadership," he said.
Jackson will join the company's board, where Hollub will maintain a seat.
Hollub's tenure was marked by bold bets to beef up Occidental's presence in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. That strategy weighed on the company when oil prices sank, but lifted it when prices rebounded -- and helped clinch Buffett as a key supporter.
A University of Alabama graduate and avid Crimson Tide football fan, Hollub joined Occidental in 1982 and soon found herself running operations in Russia and Venezuela. She almost got laid off in 2003, but Todd Stevens, an executive at the company who had followed her rise, arranged for her to lead a team evaluating acreage in Colorado, Stevens told The Wall Street Journal in 2022.
After being named CEO in 2016, Hollub departed from her predecessor's preference for low-risk, "bolt-on" transactions. A little over a year into the job, she started courting Anadarko, an oil producer of comparable size.
In 2019, Occidental outbid oil giant Chevron and struck a blockbuster agreement to buy Anadarko. Hollub negotiated the deal at the 11th hour after meeting with Buffett in Omaha, Neb., where Berkshire is based. Some shareholders decried the deal, which saddled the company with debt. Activist investor Carl Icahn, who bought stock as the Anadarko bidding war came to a close, was a strident opponent.
When crude prices tanked during pandemic lockdowns the following year, Hollub slashed spending and cut Occidental's once-sacrosanct dividend as part of a successful bid to stave off bankruptcy. Two years later, the company emerged as the top performer in the S&P 500.
Icahn got out of the stock -- and Buffett doubled down. Berkshire today owns about 27% of the company, according to S&P Capital IQ.
"I just feel relief," Hollub told the Journal in a 2022 interview. "There were a lot of doubters."
The jump in crude prices as economies reopened facilitated a big bet by Hollub to build factories to pull carbon dioxide out of the air using direct-air capture. Jackson, then Occidental's president of U.S. onshore resources and carbon management, played a key role in developing the firm's plans to make money with CO(2) removal plants. The first such plant is expected to come online this year in West Texas.
In 2024, Occidental doubled down on the Permian with the acquisition of West Texas producer CrownRock for nearly $11 billion. Some competitors who lost out on the bid said it was a pricey deal. Occidental took on more debt to finance the transaction.
Still, Buffett that year raved about the investment, saying at Berkshire's annual meeting "we're in it for keeps." He has described Hollub as an extraordinary manager. To people close to her, Hollub has marveled that she used to play in a marching band in college and got to spend time with the famous investor.
But as Buffett made for the exit -- he stepped down as Berkshire's CEO at the end of last year -- his investment was tested in a big way. As Trump imposed tariffs and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel added new barrels to well-sated markets, U.S. oil prices dropped below $60 a barrel and Occidental's stock slumped to a more than three-year low.
The Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for oil flows, have since lifted energy stocks. Occidental's share price, which was near $38 in April last year, currently hovers around $59.
Hollub's planned retirement comes at an uncertain time for the oil-and-gas industry. Oil CEOs are concerned that the most severe disruption to energy flows in recent history will dent demand for their products, and analysts say U.S. shale is likely to contend with more volatile markets in the future.
In a March interview, Hollub said Occidental has little exposure to international geopolitical risk thanks to its prime Permian position, and that its ability to recover more crude from aging reservoirs endows it with abundant supplies.
"I think when the dust settles, it's going to be clear and more bothersome to the world that oil is still incredibly important," she said.
Write to Benoît Morenne at benoit.morenne@wsj.com and Connor Hart at Connor.Hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 01, 2026 12:38 ET (16:38 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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