Retirement and Postretirement Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Retirement and Postretirement Benefit Plans


NOTE 12 - RETIREMENT AND POSTRETIREMENT BENEFIT PLANS

Occidental has various defined benefit pension plans for certain domestic union, non-union hourly and foreign national employees. In addition, Occidental also provides medical and other benefits for certain active, retired and disabled employees and their eligible dependents.

In conjunction with the Acquisition, Occidental acquired certain Anadarko contributory and non-contributory defined benefit pension plans, which include both qualified and supplemental plans, and plans that provide health care and life insurance benefits for certain retired employees. The Anadarko pension and postretirement obligations were remeasured as of the Acquisition date. The disclosures below exclude the Africa Assets classified as held for sale as of March 31, 2020.

Net periodic benefit costs related to pension benefits included a settlement gain of $9 million, a curtailment gain of $5 million and a $16 million cost of special termination benefits for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The settlement and curtailment gains and the cost of special termination benefits for 2020 primarily relate to the separation program initiated in conjunction with the Acquisition. Excluding these items, net periodic benefit costs related to pension benefits were $11 million and $2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Net periodic benefit costs related to postretirement benefits were $20 million and $14 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

Occidental contributed approximately $91 million and $1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, to its defined benefit plans. The increase in contributions is primarily due to distributions from the Anadarko supplemental plans related to the severance program described above.