Oxy CEO: new technologies and skillful recruiting pave the way to success

During an energy talk on the second day of ADIPEC 2023, Vicki Hollub, President & CEO of Occidental, shared insights into the company’s sustainability projects and her thoughts on successful leadership.

With respect to making progress resolving the climate crisis, she said: “It's all about emissions, it’s not about the fuel source. I think the conversation, hopefully, will be that we can continue to use and produce oil and gas, but we have to do it in the right way.”

“We're incredibly excited about what we're doing and we're going to be using a lot of different technologies as we go through our transformation. And ultimately, we expect to become a cargo management company. The reason we're doing that is we're trying to leverage our 30 years of co2 experience to ensure that we can continue to develop our oil and gas but in a way that's carbon neutral. Because one of the technologies that we'll be using is direct air capture, direct air capture extracts co2 out of the atmosphere, and we want to use that co2 to enhance oil recovery.”

According to Hollub, Occidental is deploying other technologies and working on development projects to help advance decarbonisation efforts across the world. For example, the company is constructing its first direct air capture facility, which is about 30% complete to date.

“We're putting it in the Permian Basin because we have infrastructure for the 2800 miles of pipeline and about 12 gas processing plants and three reservoirs. It should be completed by mid 2025.”

“We’re also looking for the appropriate place to build a CO2 capture facility here in the UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi. This is our first announcement of an international location for a direct air capture facility of this kind.”

Hollub also linked success in the industry to Occidental’s strategy for attracting and nurturing young talent into leaders of tomorrow. “We're finding that young people – new grads – love our strategy because they care about the world. And so our ability to bring on those that care – that appreciate our strategy – means it just continues to strengthen our company and culture.”