Oct 26 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, bought Occidental Petroleum shares for the first time in nearly four months, adding to its oil bet following two recent mega-mergers in that industry.

Berkshire said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday night it paid about $246 million for 3.9 million Occidental shares this week.

That gave Berkshire about 228.1 million Occidental shares, a 25.8% stake worth approximately $14.4 billion.

Berkshire had last bought Occidental shares on June 28.

It also demonstrated a willingness to pay more, spending between $62.32 and $63.31 for its latest shares, above the mid- to upper-$50s per share it had spent on purchases earlier this year.

Berkshire resumed its purchases on Monday, the same day Chevron agreed to buy Hess for $53 billion, and 12 days after Exxon Mobil agreed to buy Pioneer Natural Resources for $60 billion.

The investments and mergers reflect the purchasers' confidence in the future of fossil fuels, even as many companies and investors focus on cleaner energy sources.

Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based company has also been a big Chevron investor, ending June with a $19.4 billion stake.

Wednesday's filing also shows that Berkshire still owns $8.5 billion of Occidental preferred stock it had acquired in 2019 to help finance Occidental's purchase of Anadarko Petroleum.

Berkshire originally bought $10 billion of the preferred stock, which carries an 8% dividend, but Occidental began redeeming it this year at a premium as its balance sheet improved. It redeemed $707 million of the stock in the third quarter.

In August 2022, Berkshire won U.S. regulatory approval to buy up to 50% of Occidental, but Buffett has said he has no plans to acquire the Houston-based company.

"We're not going to buy control," Buffett said on May 6 at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting. "We've got the right management running it."

Berkshire also owns dozens of businesses including several energy operations, the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurance, and hundreds of billions of dollars of stocks including Apple . (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)