-Occidental Petroleum’s board of directors approved the spin-off of the company’s California operations. Oxy will distribute shares of California Resources Corp. Nov. 30. Executive Chairman William Albrecht and President and CEO Todd Stevens will lead the new company.
-Huntsman closed on the $1 billion acquisition of titanium dioxide and other assets from Rockwood Holdings. The deal makes Huntsman the world’s second-largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide and inorganic color pigments, behind DuPont. Company CEO Peter Huntsman told FuelFix that while Huntsman is smaller than DuPont, it is more diversified and has greater global reach.
-Marathon Petroleum completed the $2.8 billion purchase of Hess Corp.’s retail business. The acquisition expands Marathon’s Speedway retail presence to 23 states in the East Coast and Southeast regions.
-Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil announced their 50-50 joint venture Univation Technologies would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow. Univation is a PE catalyst manufacturer that licenses UNIPOL PE Process Technology. The company will be part of Dow’s Performance Plastics unit.
-Dow also said its Angus Chemical Company, Sodium Borohydride and AgroFresh businesses are up for sale under the firm’s multibillion-dollar divestiture program. The businesses are expected to yield more than $2 billion combined. Meanwhile, Dow said it has received “strong interest” in the planned carve-out of its Gulf Coast chlorine and epoxy businesses and recently sold most of its North American rail car fleet.
