ExxonMobil NEWS

Exxon reserves of the dense, heavy crude extracted from Western Canada’s sandy bogs dropped by 98%. In practical terms, the revision clipped Exxon’s future growth prospects until oil prices rise, costs slide or technological advances make it profitable to drill those fields.The reserves accounting doesn’t mean Exxon is closing up shop or walking away from Canada because the company can bring them back onto its ledger as crude prices rise.

ExxonMobil agreed to sell some assets in the North Sea for more than $1 billion as the company focuses on newer and larger sources of oil and gas such as Guyana, Brazil and the U.S. Permian Basin. The company will sell most of its non-operated upstream assets in the UK central and northern North Sea to NEO Energy. NEO is an oil producer backed by Norwegian private equity firm HitecVision AS.

ExxonMobil has already upped its climate plans, only three months into an activist investor’s campaign to force change inside the company. Engine No.1, is pushing the oil giant to set new goal, net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Engine No.1 released a letter reiterating its call for Exxon to overhaul its board of directors by adding four new members who have the expertise to steer the company towards climate neutrality.

Exxon Mobil Corp signalled in a regulatory filing that higher oil and gas prices and improved chemicals margins would aid fourth-quarter results, but the gains would be overshadowed by an up to $20 billion asset write down. Exxon expects higher prices will sequentially lift its oil and gas operating results by between $200 million and $1 billion.

BP plc decided to shut Australia's biggest refinery. After the decision was made Exxon Mobil Corp persuaded the Australian government to provide some backing to oil refineries for continuous run. The Australian government has initiated to offer $1.6 billion in incentives to the refining industry for over 10 years to secure the nation's fuel security.

U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil on Tuesday has signed an agreement with Global Clean Energy to buy 2.5 million barrels of renewable diesel per year for five years to help reduce its carbon footprint. Exxon plans to distribute the renewable diesel within California and potentially to other domestic and international markets. The renewable diesel will be sourced from Global Clean Energy’s refinery in Bakersfield, California, starting 2022.

Amidst rising pressure on the oil and gas industry's stance on climate change, the members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) have agreed to reduce the average carbon intensity of their aggregated upstream operations to ~20-21 kg of CO2e/boe by 2025. The OGCI includes BP, Chevron, Exxon and various other Oil & Gas giants which together account for over 30% of the world’s oil and gas production.

Petronas has completed a 50% farm-down of its participating interest in Block 52 offshore Suriname to ExxonMobil. The block covers an area of 4,749 sq. km, and is north of Paramaribo. Located in the Suriname-Guyana basin, where several major discoveries were made. Petronas’ upcoming exploration activities for Block 52 will involve the drilling of a well during Q3, while acquiring new 3D seismic data to evaluate the block's potential.

More than 400 people have tested positive for the coronavirus at Kazakhstan's top-producing oil field, health officials said on Friday. The number of infections at the giant Tengiz oil field rose from 17 on Thursday to 401 by Friday, according to officials in the Atyrau region. Kazakh state company KazMunayGas, ExxonMobil and LukArco - a subsidiary of Russia's Lukoil - are stakeholders in this project.

Exxon Mobil Corp yesterday registered its first quarterly loss in almost three decades, stressed by plummeting oil demand and prices. The US-based firm posted $610 million in losses for the quarter after writing down nearly $3 billion inventory. Exxon’s crude production rose to about 4 million boepd from 3.98 million boepd from a year earlier. A ray of hope came from the chemical unit which recorded a $144 million profit.

In a bid to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, ExxonMobil Corp is carrying out field trials of eight methane detection technologies, which also includes satellite monitoring. The pilot project is utilizing drones, planes, helicopters, ground-based mobile and fixed-position sensors to conduct tests at nearly 1,000 sites in Texas and New Mexico. ExxonMobil said that all technologies and deployment methods will be utilized in the detection of leaks and the identification of solutions.

As coronavirus pandemic spreads throughout the world, major energy companies in the United States enforced work-from-home rules for office staff and began health checks for remote or critical workers starting Monday. Firms like BP, Exxon Mobil, Kinder Morgan, Motiva Enterprises and Royal Dutch Shell have directed most office staff to work from home. The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 156,000 people, with more than 5800 deaths worldwide.

Oil supermajor, Exxon Mobil yesterday chalked out an action plan to reduce the methane emission from its operations, outlining its efforts as governments around the world formulate stringent environmental norms. Exxon is majorly hoping for governments to adopt the procedures the firm undertook over the past two years to reduce methane emissions by 20% in some of its US drilling operations.

The Egyptian petroleum ministry yesterday informed about inking two deals with oil supermajor, Exxon Mobil Corp for oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean. While the first agreement requires Exxon to make a minimum investment of $220 million towards the exploration in the North East Amriya block, the second is for the North Marakia block, requiring a minimum investment of $112 million. Exxon has acquired over 1.7 million acres in Egypt.

Integrated services provider, Sparrows Group has landed a five-year contract from Tengizchevroil (TCO) to provide specialist lifting inspection services for Kazakhstan's Tengiz field. The contract award builds upon Sparrows continued relationship with TCO from 2004. The contract requires Sparrows to conduct pre-mobilization and annual inspections for mobile cranes, gantry cranes, forklifts and boom trucks. TCO operates as a joint venture between Chevron, ExxonMobil, KazMunayGas and LukArco.

Oil supermajor, ExxonMobil took a big sigh of relief on Tuesday when Judge Barry Ostrager acquitted the firm in the 4-year long New York Climate-Change securities fraud trial. The ruling for the $1.6 billion lawsuit read, “The Office of the Attorney General failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that ExxonMobil made any material misstatements or omissions about its practices and procedures that misled any reasonable investor,”.

ExxonMobil's subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) has awarded a contract to Saipem. The contract is for the proposed Payara development project in Stabroek block offshore Guyana. Under the scope of this contract, subsea structures, risers and flowlines for Payara are also included. Italian contractor will be in charge of procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of a large subsea production facility.

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil have taken on lease offshore block for 30 years. The companies have paid Somalia $1.7 mn as the preliminary rent. According to the information from Shell, these charges are for retrospective charges. Also, the operation will be withheld in what is known as force majeure.