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Occidental Petroleum cuts executive pay despite big oil profits

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Occidental Petroleum Corp. reaped lucrative profits in 2011 -- and the energy company reduced its new chief executive’s compensation.

Stephen I. Chazen, who took over the chief executive job in May from Ray R. Irani, received a compensation package worth $31.7 million last year compared with the $38.1 million in 2010 when he was president, the Westwood energy company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

After years of shareholder criticism about how much Occidental paid its top officers, the fourth-largest U.S. oil company decided in 2010 to change how it determined executives’ payout to make it more difficult to receive maximum compensation.

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Chazen’s compensation in 2011 included a salary of $1.27 million, a $1.34-million bonus and $28.6 million in cash and stock awards.

Irani’s 2010 compensation of $76.1 million made him the highest paid chief executive in the energy industry as well as the top earning CEO in California. In 2011, Executive Chairman Irani received $49.8 million in total compensation.

Occidental earned $6.8 billion last year on revenue of $24 billion compared with 2010 net income of $4.5 billion on revenue of $19 billion.

Occidental stock declined $3.54, or 3.5%, to $97.96 on Tuesday.

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