Environmental Liabilities and Expenditures (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2014 site
Environmental Liabilities and Expenditures
Environmental remediation reserves, current, included in accrued liabilities	$ 78
Environmental remediation reserves, noncurrent, included in deferred credits and other liabilities - other	252
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	153
Reserve Balance	330
Environmental reserves, exceeding $ ten million, threshold value	10
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category, number of sites	103
Minimum period of expending second half of environmental reserves	10 years
Low end of range
Environmental remediation reserves
Environmental reserves, exceeding $ ten million, number of sites	11
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category	0
Period of expending first half of environmental reserves	3 years
High end of range
Environmental remediation reserves
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category	1
Period of expending first half of environmental reserves	4 years
Environmental remediation additional loss range	390
NPL sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	30
Reserve Balance	24
Third-party sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	72
Reserve Balance	94
Occidental-operated sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	19
Reserve Balance	110
Closed or non-operated Occidental sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	32
Reserve Balance	$ 102