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The Associated Press reports, Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it will sell its operation in Argentina and focus more on U.S.-based oil and gas fields in separate deals worth billions of dollars. The California-based company said it will buy several assets in the U.S. from Royal Dutch Shell and a private owner for a combined $3.2 billion. Shell''s south Texas fields are worth about $1.8 billion. They currently produce about 200 million cubic feet per day of gas equivalent. Occidental also will buy from a private seller about 180,000 acres in North Dakota for $1.4 billion. Occidental said it would sell its oil and gas operations in Argentina for $2.5 billion to Sinopec Group, China''s biggest oil refiner. Sinopec, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corp., will be making its first venture in Argentina with the purchase. The state-owned company said it wants to diversify its oil and gas producing assets to reduce surging costs from importing crude oil for refining.
