He said the company had been approached recently about the sale of its oil and gas holdings and other properties.

Cyprus said it was selling all of its oil and gas holdings to focus on its core minerals business.

When did the company sell its oil and gas holdings and become a philanthropic organization?

Occidental also has significant oil and natural gas holdings in the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico.

Another favorite: Burlington Resources, of Seattle, which has large natural gas holdings.

Mr. Dvorin, busy at the time with his own oil and gas holdings, filed the information away.

Occidental Petroleum agreed to sell its North Sea oil and gas holdings for $1.35 billion in cash to Elf Enterprise Petroleum.

Burlington Resources has large natural gas holdings.

"Naturally, we are now looking into developing" Russian oil and gas holdings.

"The big picture is Russia's oil and gas holdings."