News of October 1st (Editor ÕÔê»)News came out late in U.S. stock market on Tuesday (September 30) that Berkshire Hathaway, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett, was in talks with Occidental Petroleum Company to acquire its petrochemical business subsidiary OxyChem for about US$10 billion.

Berkshire plans to acquire Occidental Petroleum subsidiary (data map)

OxyChem mainly supplies chemicals used in health care, food safety, and construction sectors. Last weekend it was that Western oil was negotiating the sale of OxyChem, which is also a continuation of the energy company¡¯s initiative to continue its deprivation of assets in recent years.

The latest news points out that this potential deal could be concluded as soon as a few days. Historical data shows that if the deal goes through, it will become Berkshire's largest deal since its $13.7 billion acquisition of Alleghany Insurance Company in 2022.

The potential OxyChem acquisition will also be Buffett's second major bet in the chemical sector. In 2011, Berkshire acquired specialty chemicals producer Lubrizol for nearly $10 billion (including debt).

Over the years, Buffett has been avoiding large deals and gradually reducing holdings of large shares such as Apple. Today, the 95-year-old CEO appears to be ready to take action before leaving office at the end of the year, and recently he has invested $1.6 billion in Joint Health.

Currently, Berkshire Hathaway is Occidental Petroleum's largest shareholder, holding about 27% of the latter's outstanding shares. Berkshire has been buying shares in Occidental Petroleum since February 2022, just as the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.

However, the rise in international crude oil prices did not last long, and even fell significantly after Trump returned to the White House, hitting energy companies including Western Oil.

Meanwhile, Western oil also faced a heavy debt burden, with the company acquiring Anadarko Oil Company for $55 billion in 2019 and CrownRock LP for $10.8 billion last year, significantly increasing its debt.

Following the completion of the CrownRock transaction, Western Oil launched an asset decommissioning plan. By the end of June this year, Western Oil¡¯s total debt amounted to $233,4 billion. The data also showed that the OxyChem division made $24.2 billion in revenue in the first two quarters of the year.