Oil Company to Sell off California Assets, Move to Texas

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Occidental Petroleum Corp said it would spin off its oil and gas assets in California into a separately traded company and move its headquarters from Los Angeles to Houston, where it will be closer to its largest U.S. operations.

Wall Street analysts have estimated the underperforming California unit, which Occidental had talked about splitting from for months, could be worth $19 billion to $22 billion.

New York-traded shares of Occidental rose 3.5 percent on Friday to $95.51, giving the fourth-largest U.S. oil company a market capitalization of $72 billion.