ExxonMobil Sees Stellar Quarterly Results, Pushes Forward with Onshore, Offshore Drilling Globally

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Rising prices for crude oil and natural gas gave Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) (ExxonMobil) (Irving, Texas) one of its best quarters in years, despite some hurricane-related slowdowns. The company is expanding its global presence in both onshore and offshore drilling, particularly in the booming Permian Basin. Industrial Info is tracking more than $106 billion in active projects involving ExxonMobil, including about $19 billion worth that are under construction.

Capital and exploration expenditures were reported to be $5.99 billion, about 43% higher than third-quarter 2016; but for the first nine months of the year, expenditures were $14.1 billion, about 3% lower than expenditures in the comparable period. For full-year 2018, ExxonMobil expects its capital spending to total roughly $25 billion.

Offshore drilling accounted for some of ExxonMobil's strongest growth, with a dozen new blocks acquired near Brazil, and new discoveries and agreements in Guyana and Suriname. In the Gulf of Mexico, ExxonMobil is at work on the $4 billion subsea production system in the Julia Field, which is set to wrap up in the coming months. ExxonMobil is drilling four wells and installing a subsea tie-back system to its Jack/St. Malo platform to produce 34,000 barrels per day (BBL/d). For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Further developments in the Gulf of Mexico are being considered. Last week, the Trump administration said it will sell leases for some 77 million acres in the Gulf for oil and gas drilling, the largest sale of offshore leases in U.S. history, according to The Houston Chronicle. The area is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of more than 48 billion barrels of oil and 141 trillion cubic feet of gas.

But in the near term, ExxonMobil is more interested in expanding its role in Texas' Permian Basin, where it has added 22,000 acres since May. Although the overall U.S. rig count has slowed, executives expect to have 30 drilling rigs in the Permian at the end of next year, up from the current 20 rigs. ExxonMobil expects unconventional output from the Permian to grow about 45% through 2020, with overall growth at about 20% annually through 2025.

Also in Texas, ExxonMobil earlier this month began producing high-performance polyethylene on the first of two new lines at its plastics plant in Mont Belvieu, Texas, and is constructing a $450 million gasoline hydrotreater addition at its refinery in Beaumont, Texas. Each of the two new polyethylene lines at Mont Belvieu will produce about 650,000 tons per year, while Beaumont's 40,000-BBL/d hydrotreater will use Scanfiner Design to reduce sulfur content in gasoline about 66%. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the Mont Belvieu and Beaumont additions, and October 18, 2017, article - ExxonMobil Opens Polyethylene Line, Plans for New Complex in Texas.

In Africa, ExxonMobil is providing specification and reliability services for Total S.A.'s (NYSE:TOT) (Paris, France) Kaombo 2 floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility in Angola's Gulf of Guinea, which includes a $1 billion conversion of a very large crude carrier (VLCC), the $700 million construction of a gas wellhead and riser platform, and the $20 million addition of a subsea production system. For more information, see Industrial Info's project reports on the VLCC conversion, platform construction and subsea system.

For the first nine months of the year, ramp-ups in Australia fueled ExxonMobil's 10% global growth in natural gas production to 10.1 billion cubic feet per day. Australia's oil production remained largely unchanged, but the company expects to wrap up an $11.5 million expansion of a refined products storage terminal in Yarraville, Victoria, before the end of the year. ExxonMobil has demolished unused warehouses at the facility to add 40 million liters in storage tanks, bringing total capacity to 160 million liters. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

Third-quarter net income stood at $3.97 billion, a 49.8% increase from the same period last year, from revenues of $66.17 billion, a 12.8% increase.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.