US producers continue to work toward their debt reduction goals, but for many the urgency has faded amid continued cost reductions and a rise in crude prices to above where most had pegged their 2019 spending budgets. Occidental cannot escape growing attention on its debt after the company this month leap-frogged Chevron in a bid to acquire Anadarko. Investors worry that the deal may have overstretched the company’s balance sheet. But chief financial officer Cedric Burgher seeks to allay those fears, partly thanks to the firm’s $10bn backing from investment group Berkshire Hathaway. With divestments of $10bn-15bn planned after the merger, Oxy predicts its debt will be less than two times its earnings before tax at a crude price of $60/bl by 2021. This rises to just over two times at $50/bl, which is still “manageable”, Burgher says.
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