ExxonMobil Expects to Double Earnings by 2025 as it Pours More into Capex

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (ExxonMobil) (Irving, Texas) has earmarked $24 billion for capital expenditures this year and plans to ramp up that amount to an average of $30 billion during 2023 to 2025 as the global energy giant pushes to double earnings, company executives said Wednesday. Industrial Info is tracking nearly $44 billion dollars in active ExxonMobil projects.

Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said at the company's annual meeting with investment analysts that he anticipates ExxonMobil's capital expenditures will increase to $28 billion in 2019, and that spending will increase even more across its upstream and downstream segments in subsequent years. Capital expenditures totaled $23.1 billion in 2017.

ExxonMobil plans to increase earnings by more than 100% to $31 billion from last year's adjusted profit of $15 billion, excluding the impact of U.S. tax reform and impairments, according to a company press release.

The company said it would increase investments in U.S. tight oil, deepwater and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Production will increase from 4 million oil-equivalent barrels per day (BBL/d) to about 5 million BBL/d by 2025, ExxonMobil added.

ExxonMobil said it will increase tight-oil production five-fold from the U.S. Permian Basin and start up 25 projects worldwide, adding more than 1 million oil-equivalent barrels per day in production.

In January, ExxonMobil announced it would more than double its Permian Basin resources to 6 billion barrels of oil equivalent through the acquisition of companies owned by the Bass family of Fort Worth, Texas, with an estimated resource of 3.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent in New Mexico's Delaware Basin.

"We are in a solid position to maximize the value of the increased Permian production as it moves from the well head to our Gulf Coast refining and chemical operations, where we are focusing on manufacturing higher-demand, higher-value products," Woods said in press release.

Industrial Info is tracking more than $25 billion worth of ExxonMobil oil & gas production project activity. In November, the company announced it had begun oil production from the Hebron offshore field, located about 200 miles offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. The project, a joint venture with several other companies, had a $6 billion cost and will produce 150,000 BBL/d. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report and November 29, 2017, article - Exxon Begins Production at Canada's Hebron Offshore Field.

ExxonMobil expects its downstream business to double earnings by 2025 by upgrading its product slate through investments in its refineries in Baytown and Beaumont in Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as those in Rotterdam, Antwerp, Singapore and Fawley in the U.K. Industrial Info is tracking $2.3 billion in ExxonMobil refining projects. At its Beaumont refinery, ExxonMobil is expected to complete construction in the third quarter this year of a 40,000-BBL/d gasoline hydrotreater unit to meet Tier 3 gasoline sulfur-reduction specifications. See Industrial Info's project report for more information on the $450 million unit.

The company said it expects to increase its chemical manufacturing capacity in North America and Asia by about 40% through 2025, in part by adding 13 new facilities, including two world-class steam crackers in the U.S.

Industrial Info is tracking more than $13 billion in chemical project activity by ExxonMobil, including a $10 billion petrochemicals complex in Portland, Texas, which is a joint venture project by ExxonMobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia). For more information, see Industrial Info's project report and January 9, 2018, article - Texas Chemicals Plant One Step Closer with Tax Breaks.

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