Environmental Liabilities and Expenditures (Details) $ in Millions	6 Months Ended
	Jun. 30, 2016 USD ($) site
Environmental remediation reserves
Environmental remediation reserves, current, included in accrued liabilities	$ 70
Environmental remediation reserves, noncurrent, included in deferred credits and other liabilities - other	$ 309
Number of Sites | site	145
Reserve Balance	$ 379
Environmental reserves, exceeding $ ten million, threshold value	$ 10
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category, number of sites | site	94
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 | site	11
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	$ 370
NPL sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites | site	33
Reserve Balance	$ 27
Third-party sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites | site	65
Reserve Balance	$ 128
Occidental-operated sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites | site	17
Reserve Balance	$ 102
Closed or non-operated Occidental sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites | site	30
Reserve Balance	$ 122