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Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) said Thursday the delay in Federal Trade Commission approval of the $12B acquisition of shale producer CrownRock has pushed back the deal’s closing date to this year’s H2.
The regulator’s second request for information on the deal will force Occidental (OXY) to postpone planned sales of $4.5B-$6B in assets, and delay any potential changes in the company’s buyback program, CEO Vicki Hollub said.
“Some of our teams felt like they’d [FTC] asked for everything,” Hollub said on the post-earnings conference call.
Occidental (OXY) is open to selling non-core Permian Basin assets but not until the CrownRock acquisition closes, the CEO also said.
Some analysts anticipated Occidental’s (OXY) better than expected Q4 results would be overshadowed by the delayed CrownRock closing and its flat production outlook, but the stock finished +4.9% on Thursday to its best level in six weeks.