Occidental said it expects improved earnings.

The oil company wouldn’t give any reason for the expected increase in second-quarter earnings. However, the prediction comes on the heels of the sale of half of Oxy’s rich oil holdings in Colombia to Royal Dutch-Shell for $1 billion and its sale of one-fourth of its large Libyan holdings to an Austrian oil company for an undisclosed price. Analysts have valued the Libyan deal at about $100 million. The Libyan deal closed in late June, and the Colombian sale was completed July 1. In the like 1984 quarter, Occidental Petroleum reported earnings of $125 million.