ExxonMobil NEWS

Oil and Gas Climate Initiative was formed in 2014 to address the issues of climate change. Initially, members from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America formed the organization but now, the US companies- Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleum will also be joining OGCI. Each new member will commit $100 million to $1 billion investment fund of OGCI whose purpose is to assist in development of emissions reduction technology.

US oil supermajor, ExxonMobil is all set to pour £500 million to upgrade Britain’s largest oil refinery and extend its facility. Almost a century-old Fawley refinery will see the addition of new oil processing units, enabling it to produce larger volumes of high-quality diesel. The upgradation is in line with Exxon’s growth plans to double earnings by 2025 with Fawley marked as a “strategic” site.

After BP, oil giant ExxonMobil has now entered into an agreement with the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. for the Alaska North Slope natural gas sale. The sale will be to a state-sanctioned corporation who wants to build a LNG project worth $34 billion, including 800-mile pipeline. Currently, Alaska Gasline is negotiating with ConocoPhillips for the same. These three oil majors are intended to be a part of this project.

Oil supermajor, Exxon Mobil is planning to set up a 1.2 million tonnes per year ethylene plant. The project also includes two polyethylene and two polypropylene lines, in China’s southern province of Guangdong. Exxon will begin working on the multi-billion dollar project from 2023. The US oil major is intending to cover the growing demand for chemical products in Chinese market.

The oil giant, ExxonMobil raised a concern regarding the blockade at Nigerian oil facilities by previous employees. According to the company, these actions have put the country’s crude oil production at risk. Exxon’s subsidiary, Mobil Producing Nigeria informed that the company’s production is almost 550,000 bpd and added that "continued denial of access to production facilities could impact the company's ability to safely continue production operations".

ExxonMobil has come in support of $2bn Permian Highway Pipeline project by signing a letter of intent (LOI). The project is a joint venture of Kinder Morgan’s subsidiary Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline (KMTP), Apache and EagleClaw Midstream Ventures. American oil major will provide shipping facilities to the PHP. With a capacity of 2 Bcf/d the natural gas will be transported to the areas of US Goalf Coast and Mexico markets.

Pakistan’s Maritime and Foreign Affairs Minister informed during FPCCI meeting that the American oil giant, ExxonMobil is close to discover oil reserves near the Pak-Iran border. The reserves could be huge, bigger than the Kuwaiti reserves. Exxon has submitted an undertaking to the government for setting up a $10 billion generation complex, the Minister said. VP of FPCCI emphasized the needs of improving the efficiency of Pakistani ports.

The investors showed disinterest towards investment in big projects of Exxon and Chevron on Friday. Although they accepted Chevron’s stock buyback of $3 billion, ExxonMobil’s market value was scraped by $11 billion. Both the companies failed to meet the profit estimates of the analysts. The crude price of Brent went up by 50 percent higher than next year but both these companies failed to take full advantage.

Italian oil firm, Saipem in an announcement said that it has received more than £600 million worth of contract for projects across Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Mexico, Iraq, and Nigeria. Further, the company also declared contract awards from ExxonMobil and Petróleos Mexicanos for various projects and it will also be leading a JV with Chiyoda and Daewoo, a FEED contract awarded by Nigeria LNG Limited.

Russian oil major, Rosneft has slammed a $1.4bn lawsuit against a consortium led by oil supermajor, ExxonMobil. Rosneft has filed the suit in a local arbitration court, alleging the consortium, which is working on the Sakhalin-1 project, of “unjust enrichment” in 2015, demanding payment of $1.41bn. Analysts see the lawsuit further deteriorating foreign investor appetite in Russia’s energy industry, which is already in a miserable state due to western sanctions.

A suit filed in NYC court against five top-notch oil and gas companies, alleging them for contributing to climate change, has been tossed out. ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and ConocoPhillips were named in the suit. The court cited that concerns like these must be addressed by the other branches of government, rather than the judiciary. There have been similar rulings in favor of the companies in San Francisco and California.

Hong Kong-based PetroChina has awarded a three-year-long LNG supply contract to ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG project. Under the terms of the contract, 0.45 million tonnes a year (0.45Mt/y) of LNG from the operation in Papua New Guinea, will be supplied to PetroChina, reaching 1.35 million tonnes in 3 years. The PNG LNG project is already supplying some 6.6Mt to major Asian customers like Sinopec, Osaka Gas and others.

ExxonMobil’s stock performance has not been so good this year, with its stock down by almost 1%, so far in 2018. Its competitors Europe-based Royal Dutch Shell, Total, and BP are, however, up somewhere between 8-16%. Experts are now speculating on whether the Houston-based operator is moving towards a buy-out. Exxon had been leading the pack for many years with regard to return on capital employed (ROCE).

Exxon Mobil yesterday informed about discontinuing its membership of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Exxon had a public argument with ALEC last year over climate-change policy. Exxon's departure has come in light when corporate giants like Ford Motor Co. and Expedia Group Inc. have already departed the lobbying group, owing to ALEC's stance on climate rules, renewable energy and other issues.

Exxon Mobil yesterday said that the development drilling for its three offshore Guyana projects has begun. The developments, which could produce more than 500,000 bpd, are likely to start producing oil from 2020. The project would see the conversion of an oil tanker into a floating, production, storage and offload (FPSO) vessel, with a production capacity of 120,000 bpd, while a second FPSO of 220,000 bpd capacity is under planning.

Exxon Mobil and Plains All American will be participating in a joint venture (JV) for transporting crude from various locations in the Permian basin to Texas Gulf Coast. This proposed pipeline will significantly bring down the cost and time invested in the process of transportation from the point of origin to markets in Texas. The pipeline will be designed with the objective of shipping one million barrels of crude oil and condensate per day.

The Brazilian oil regulators National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) has awarded Equinor exploration rights for the Uirapuru and Dois Irmãos blocks in the pre-salt area offshore Brazil. The Norwegian oil major joined forces with ExxonMobil (combined stake 28%) and Petrogal Brasil (14%) for the Uirapuru block, and with Petrobras and BP for the Dois Irmãos block. The exploration rights have added highly prospective acreage to Equinor’s exploration portfolio.

Darren Woods, the CEO of ExxonMobil, has said that the firm is trying to find a fine balance between sustainability and economic growth. Exxon plans to invest $200 billion in significant oil and gas projects around the world over seven years, indicating that growth is a priority. He also cited investments in environmental projects such as algae biofuels, and in emission reduction in its industrial processes as the way forward.