...Fitch Ratings has affirmed Occidental Petroleum Corporation's (NYSE: OXY) Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured ratings at `A' and its short-term IDR and CP rating at `F1'. The Rating Outlook has been revised to Stable from Negative. The primary catalyst for stabilizing the Outlook was the early completion of the company's break-even plan and a materially improved FCF outlook. Under that plan, OXY expects to fund its capex and dividend with no upstream growth at $40 WTI, and with 5%¡8% upstream growth at $50 WTI. A key plank of the plan was the additional cash flow from an 80,000boepd increase in high margin Permian Resources production. In 2Q18, OXY achieved that target three quarters early, with average Resources production increasing to 201,000boepd, and an exit rate of 213,000boepd. The company also logged very strong results in its midstream and marketing and chemicals segments and expects to see additional liquidity through the pending sale of its Centurion Pipeline...
