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The Federal Trade Commission has granted Occidental Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary, Occidental Chemical Corporation, approval to divest their suspension polyvinyl chloride (PVC) copolymer and dispersion PVC plant in Burlington, New Jersey, as well as related assets, to a subsidiary of Ozite Corporation.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation is based in Los Angeles, California. Ozite, based in Libertyville, Illinois, is a manufacturer of diversified plastic products and compounds made from PVC.

Divestiture of Occidental's suspension PVC copolymer and dispersion PVC plant in Burlington, and prior FTC approval of the divestiture, are required under a February 1994 order entered pursuant to an agreement between the FTC and Occidental to settle Occidental's appeal from a Commission order requiring divestiture. The Commission, in an opinion accompanying the divestiture order, had concluded that occidental's acquisition of certain assets from Tenneco Polymers, Inc., would substantially reduce competition in the U.S. markets for certain types of PVC. The Commission required Occidental to divest PVC plants in Pasadena, Texas and Burlington, New Jersey. Occidental agreed to divest its suspension PVC plant in Addis, Louisiana, and its Burlington suspension PVC plant and dispersion PVC plant to an FTC-approved entity (or entities). The Addis plant divestiture was approved earlier this year.

The Commission vote to approve the divestiture was 4-0, with Chairman Robert Pitofsky recused

Copies of the application and the Commission's letter approving the divestiture, as well as documents and previous news releases associated with this case, are available from the FTC's Public Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; 202-326-2222;TTY for the hearing-impaired 1-866-653-4261. To find out the latest FTC news as it is announced, call the FTC's NewsPhone at 202-326-2710.

FTC news releases are available on the Internet at the FTC's World Wide Website at http://www.ftc.gov

(FTC Docket No. 9205)

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