Environmental Liabilities and Expenditures (Details) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified	9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2013 site
Environmental Liabilities and Expenditures
Environmental remediation reserves, current, included in accrued liabilities	$ 80
Environmental remediation reserves, noncurrent, included in deferred credits and other liabilities - other	254
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	160
Reserve Balance	334
Environmental reserves, exceeding $ ten million, threshold value	10
Environmental reserves, exceeding $ ten million, number of sites	10
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category, number of sites	112
Minimum period of expending second half of environmental reserves	10 years
Environmental remediation additional loss range	375
Low end of range
Environmental remediation reserves
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category	0
Period of expending first half of environmental reserves	3 years
High end of range
Environmental remediation reserves
Environmental reserves, range between zero to $ one million site category	1
Period of expending first half of environmental reserves	4 years
NPL sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	32
Reserve Balance	51
Third-party sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	75
Reserve Balance	91
Occidental-operated sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	22
Reserve Balance	118
Closed or non-operated Occidental sites
Environmental remediation reserves
Number of Sites	31
Reserve Balance	$ 74