The appointment, effective immediately, comes when the shale producer is struggling with a massive $40 billion debt load from its purchase of rival Anadarko Petroleum, an ill-timed bet on rising oil prices.
The company recently settled a long and bitter war with Carl Icahn over that deal, giving the activist investor's associates three seats on its board.
Occidental's current financial head, Cedric Burgher, will transition to another role, the company said in a filing https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/797468/000114036120007995/form8k.htm. Burgher had joined in 2017 from EOG Resources.
The CFO transition marks the second major management change at Occidental in recent weeks. A proxy filing https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/797468/000120677420001012/oxy3677661-pre14a.htm earlier this week revealed that senior vice president Oscar Brown, one of the key figures in the Anadarko deal, left in March.
The company did not provide a reason for the CFO change or for Brown's departure.
Peterson, 49, has served in various positions at the company and was most recently senior vice president in Occidental's Permian enhanced oil recovery business.
(Reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
