 Irani made news in 2007, when it was revealed that his total compensation for the 2006 year topped $450 million.His base salary was $1.3 million.Occidental justified the compensation by pointing to the stock price, which had risen from $9 a share when Irani succeeded Hammer to $48.60 at the end of 2006, and to the company's market capitalization, which grew from $32.1 billion at the end of 2005 to $42.5 billion at the end of 2006.