NOTE 7DERIVATIVES

Objective & Strategy

Occidental uses a variety of derivative instruments, including cash-flow hedges and derivative instruments not designated as hedging instruments, to obtain the average prices for the relevant production month and to improve realized prices for oil and gas. Occidental only occasionally hedges its oil and gas production, and, when it does so, the volumes are usually insignificant.

Refer to Note 1 for Occidental’s accounting policy on derivatives.

Cash-Flow Hedges

Occidental’s marketing and trading operations, from time to time, store natural gas purchased from third parties at Occidental’s North American leased storage facilities. Derivative instruments used to fix margins on the future sales of the stored volumes ended March 31, 2014. As of December 31, 2014, Occidental did not have any cash-flow hedges on stored volumes of natural gas. At December 31, 2013, Occidental had approximately 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas held in storage, and had cash-flow hedges for the forecast sale, to be settled by physical delivery, of approximately 13 billion cubic feet of stored natural gas.

The following table presents the after-tax gains and losses recognized in, and reclassified to income from, AOCI, for derivative instruments classified as cash-flow hedges for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013:

	After-tax
As of December 31, (in millions)	2014			2013
Unrealized losses recognized in AOCI	$	(5	)	$	(3	)
Losses (Gains) reclassified to income	$	8		$	(4	)

Occidental reclassified all of the outstanding balances as of 2013 net after-tax derivative losses from AOCI into net sales during 2014. The amount of the ineffective portion of cash-flow hedges was immaterial for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013.

Derivatives Not Designated as Hedging Instruments

The following table summarizes Occidental’s net volumes of outstanding commodity derivatives contracts not designated as hedging instruments, including both financial and physical derivative contracts as of December 31, 2014 and 2013:

	Net Outstanding Position Long / (Short)
Commodity	2014		2013
Oil (million barrels)	(9	)	(22	)
Natural gas (billion cubic feet)	(32	)	(10	)
CO2 (million cubic feet)	621		—

The volumes in the table above exclude contracts tied to index prices, for which the fair value, if any, is minimal at any point in time. These contracts do not expose Occidental to price risk because the contract prices fluctuate with index prices.

Occidental fulfills its short positions through its own production or by third-party purchase contracts. Subsequent to December 31, 2014, Occidental entered into purchase contracts for a substantial portion of the outstanding positions at year-end and has sufficient production capacity and the ability to enter into additional purchase contracts to satisfy the remaining positions.

Approximately $71 million net loss and $11 million net gain from derivatives not designated as hedging instruments were recognized in net sales for the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Fair Value of Derivatives

The following table presents the gross and net fair values of Occidental’s outstanding derivatives as of December 31, 2014 and 2013:

(in millions)
December 31, 2014	Asset Derivatives Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value			Liability Derivatives Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
Cash-flow hedges (a)
Commodity contracts	Other current assets	$	—		Accrued liabilities	$	—
Commodity contracts	Long-term receivables and other assets, net	—			Deferred credits and other liabilities	—
		$	—			$	—
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments (a)
Commodity contracts	Other current assets	$	828		Accrued liabilities	$	886
Commodity contracts	Long-term receivables and other assets, net	11			Deferred credits and other liabilities	110
		839				996
Total gross fair value		839				996
Less: counterparty netting and cash collateral (b) (d)		(742		)		(756		)
Total net fair value of derivatives		$	97			$	240

(in millions)

December 31, 2013	Asset Derivatives Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value			Liability Derivatives Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
Cash-flow hedges (a)
Commodity contracts	Other current assets	$	—		Accrued liabilities	$	4
Commodity contracts	Long-term receivables and other assets, net	—			Deferred credits and other liabilities	—
		$	—			$	4
Derivatives not designated as hedging instruments (a)
Commodity contracts	Other current assets	$	367		Accrued liabilities	$	407
Commodity contracts	Long-term receivables and other assets, net	13			Deferred credits and other liabilities	11
		380				418
Total gross fair value		380				422
Less: counterparty netting and cash collateral (c) (d)		(329		)		(364		)
Total net fair value of derivatives		$	51			$	58

(a)	Fair values are presented at gross amounts, including when the derivatives are subject to master netting arrangements and presented on a net basis in the consolidated balance sheets.

(b)	As of December 31, 2014, collateral received of zero has been netted against derivative assets and collateral paid of $8 million has been netted against derivative liabilities.

(c)	As of December 31, 2013, collateral received of $11 million has been netted against derivative assets and collateral paid of $46 million has been netted against derivative liabilities.

(d)	Select clearinghouses and brokers require Occidental to post an initial margin deposit. Collateral, mainly for initial margin, of $44 million and $103 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, deposited by Occidental, has not been reflected in these derivative fair value tables. This collateral is included in other current assets in the consolidated balance sheets.

See Note 15 for fair value measurement disclosures on derivatives.

Credit Risk

A majority of Occidental’s derivative transaction volumes are executed through exchange-traded contracts, which are subject to minimal credit risk as a significant portion of these transactions is settled on a daily margin basis with select clearinghouses and brokers. Occidental executes the rest of its derivative transactions in the OTC market. Occidental is subject to counterparty credit risk to the extent the counterparty to the derivatives is unable to meet its settlement commitments. Occidental manages this credit risk by selecting counterparties that it believes to be financially strong, by spreading the credit risk among many such counterparties, by entering into master netting arrangements with the counterparties and by requiring collateral, as appropriate. Occidental actively monitors the creditworthiness of each counterparty and records valuation adjustments to reflect counterparty risk, if necessary.

Certain of Occidental’s OTC derivative instruments contain credit-risk-contingent features, primarily tied to credit ratings for Occidental or its counterparties, which may affect the amount of collateral that each would need to post. As of December 31, 2014 and 2013, Occidental had a net liability of $4 million and $8 million, respectively, which are net of collateral posted of $3 million and $23 million, respectively. Occidental believes that if it had received a one-notch reduction in its credit ratings, it would not have resulted in a material change in its collateral-posting requirements as of December 31, 2014 and 2013.

Foreign Currency Risk

Occidental’s foreign operations have limited currency risk. Occidental manages its exposure primarily by balancing monetary assets and liabilities and limiting cash positions in foreign currencies to levels necessary for operating purposes. A vast majority of international oil sales are denominated in United States dollars. Additionally, all of Occidental’s consolidated foreign oil and gas subsidiaries have the United States dollar as the functional currency. As of December 31, 2014, the fair value of foreign currency derivatives used in the trading operations was immaterial. The effect of exchange rates on transactions in foreign currencies is included in periodic income.