I don't understand what the big deal about OXY's Permian stake is other than the fact that it a domestic source of oil. ..

I think the main explanation is the obvious one: it's in the US. Mr Buffett has never been fond of exposing the portfolio to any of the unpredictable risks of investing outside the US.

I doubt we'll hear him express an opinion of the evolving risk profile *inside* the US. He has already been cowed into declining to answer questions about how the economy is doing, but silence might not be enough. Given his (and Berkshire's) high profile, it seems nigh inevitable that Berkshire will be punitively targeted by the US government for something or other at some point. With luck it will just be a shakedown, not a shutdown. Now that the Apple position has been pruned, I imagine the greatest risk to the value of a share of Berkshire is no longer Apple's China exposure vis-a-vis politics and geoeconomics, but Berkshire's US exposure in the same realms. Ask a Kenvue shareholder.

Jim