ExxonMobil NEWS

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has agreed to set financial terms for Total’s long-awaited gas project in the country. The project is expected to double LNG exports from PNG. Papua LNG will supply gas for two new processing units at Exxon Mobil’s PNG LNG plant. Negotiations over how revenue would be shared still require more work.

Supermajor, ExxonMobil has been slammed with a new lawsuit by the New York Attorney General. The lawsuit alleges Exxon of misleading investors about its readiness to overcome the financial challenges posed by climate change to their business. The suit follows a three-year legal fight against Exxon. Spokesman for Exxon, referring to the allegations as baseless, said that the New York AG’s office is yet to find any evidence against Exxon.

BASF, world’s largest chemical producer, and ExxonMobil are conducting a full scale commercial demonstration of their jointly-developed solvent. The firms have chosen Imperial Oil’s Sarnia Refinery for this purpose. The amine-based solvent is aimed at fulfilling the stringent sulfur emission standards with greater efficiency. The solvent will allow refiners and gas processors to enhance capacity and reduce the operating costs involved with existing equipment.

Mozambique’s government informed that it has signed an oil exploration agreement with ExxonMobil and Rosneft. The energy regulator of Mozambique, National Petroleum Institute said that the government is planning to get into similar agreements with Sasol of South Africa and Itlay’s Eni. These energy firms will drill a minimum of 10 wells which is expected to lead to an investment of as much as $700 million.

ExxonMobil is strategizing according to the new global shipping fuel regulations to be effective from 2020. The energy major will plan on a multi-billion dollar investment in its Singapore refinery. It is Exxon’s chief petrochemical complex with a 592,000 bpd capacity. This move is in line with the IMO’s new rules to limit the sulphur content to 0.5% from present 3.5% in order to reduce pollution by ships worldwide.

The consortium operating the 250,000 bpd Sakhalin-1 project in Russia has agreed to pay Russian oil major, Rosneft $230 million to settle the production dispute out-of-court. Rosneft, in June, had dragged the consortium of ExxonMobil, ONGC Videsh Ltd, and SODECO to court. Rosneft was seeking $1.4 billion in damages, alleging "unjust enrichment and interest gained by using other people's money". OVL will pay $46 million as part of settlement money.

ExxonMobil began operating a new unit at the integrated Beaumont facility in Texas. The new unit will boost the production of ultra-low sulfur fuels by about 45,000 barrels per day. Exxon developed a proprietary catalyst system for the unit to remove sulfur and meet US Environmental Protection Agency specifications while reducing octane loss. The project is part of Exxon’s Growing the Gulf initiative.

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.