BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, cut its stake in U.S. oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp. by about 9% last year, according to a securities filing Feb. 5.
The firm beneficially owned 53.69 million Occidental shares at the end of December, down 5 million shares from a year earlier. The stake was valued at $1.22 billion on Feb. 5.
BlackRock did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The firm has urged companies to prepare their businesses to live in a low-carbon environment by the middle of this century.
Occidental Petroleum has embraced carbon emissions reductions and laid out a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. A company representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on BlackRock’s share sales.
Occidental Petroleum’s market value sank 60% last year as oil demand and prices tumbled and debt from its 2019 purchase of Anadarko Petroleum drove losses. It lost $14.36 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Full-year results are set to be released on Feb. 16.
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