Occidental is L.A.’s largest publicly traded company (based on the value of its stock) and among the most admired of the major energy corporations, with operations in the United States, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East. Last year it earned almost $3 billion, compared with a loss of $1.7 billion in 1990.

But Occidental is not an easy company to love. It’s boring. It’s slow. It doesn’t buy commercial time during the Super Bowl, and you won’t find the company’s name on a basketball arena. It has next to no civic visibility in its home base of Los Angeles—and little interest in pursuing any. Executive recruiters told Business Week last year that Oxy is “an autocratic environment where managers at the oil giant simply wait for dictates from on high.” Two activist shareholders have complained that senior executives enjoy nearly free rein because of the board’s “entrenchment and ossification.”

All this, however, pales next to what has been the biggest rap against Occidental: how much its chief executive gets paid.

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